This new and improved translation of "The
GLORIES OF MARY., " having been duly examined,
is hereby approved of. JOHN

ArcKUshop of New Yerk
No York, Jan. 21**, 1862.

Copyright, 1888,

BY

P. J. KBNBDT,

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

THE edition of the "GLORIES OF MARY." now pre
sented to the Catholic public of America is the
first complete translation of the work ever ma^e
into the English language. We trust that it
will be found to retain the spirit of the learned
and saintly author, and that it will be welcomed
by the faithful in this country with the same
delight which it has universally called forth in
Catholic Europe.

PROTEST OF THE AUTHOR.

IN obedience to the decrees of Urban VIII.,
of holy memory, I protest that I do not intend
to attribute any other than purely human author
ity to all the miracles, revelations, graces, and
incidents contained in this book; neither to the
titles holy or blessed applied to the servants of
God not yet canonized; except in cases where
these have been confirmed by the holy Roman
Catholic Church, and by the holy Apostolic See,
of whom I profess myself an obedient son; and
therefore to their judgment I submit myself
and whatever I have written in this book.

CONTENTS.

Preface to American edition..., ,.,, 3

Protest of the author.... 4

Petition of the author to Jesus and Mary 11

To the reader * 13

introduction 16

Prayer to the blessed Virgin to obtain a good death 22

CHAPTER I.

SECTION 1. Hall, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! of the great
confidence we should have in Mary, because she is the Queen
of Mercy 25

SECT. 2. How much greater should be our confidence in Mary,
because she is our mother 39

BBCT. 8. How great is the love of our mother for us 60

SECT. 4. Mary is also mother of penitent sinners 68

CHAPTER II.

SKCT. 1. Our life, our sweetness! Mary is our life, because he
obtains for us the pardon of our sins 80

SBCT. 2. Mary is again our life, because she obtains for us per
severance 89

BBOT. 3. -Mary renders death sweet to her servants 101

CHAPTER III.

SECT. 1. Hail, our hope ! Mary is the hope of all 115

BECT. 2. Mary, the hope of sinners 187

CHAPTER IV.
fiBcr. 1. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve!

How ready is Mary to succor those who call upon her 142

SHOT. 2. How powerful is Mary to protect those who invoke her

in temptations of the devil J66

CHAPTER V.

BBOT. 1. To thee we send up our sighs, groaning and weeping
in this valley of tears! The need we have of the intercession
of Mary for our salvation 168

CECT. 1. And after this our exile, show us the blessed fruit of
thy womb, Jesus. Mary rescues her servants from hell. . . . 254

SHOT. 2. Mary assists her servants in purgatory 267

SBCT. 3. Mary conducts her servants to paradise 276

CHAPTER IX.

Oh clement, oh merciful! How great is the clemency and
mercy of Mary.. 290

CHAPTER X.

Oh sweet Virgin Mary! How sweet is the name of Mary in life
and in death , 305

VEST DEVOUT PRATERS OP VARIOUS SAINTS TO THE HOLY
MOTHER .*...

PART II.

DISCOURSE I.

ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY.

How befitting it was to all three of the Divine Persons that Mary
should be preserved from original sin 337

DISCOURSE IL

ON THE BIRTH OP MARY.

Mary was born a saint, and a great saint, for great was the grace
with which our Lord enriched her from the beginning, and
great was the fidelity with which Mary at once corresponded

871

CONTENTS. T

DISCOURSE IIL

ON THE PRESENTATION OF MAST.

Th offering -which Mary made of herself to God was prompt,
without delay; entire, without reserve 893

DISCOURSE IV.

ON THE ANNUNCIATION OF MARY.

Mary could not humble herself more than she did In the incar
nation of the Word; on the other hand, God could not exalt
her more than he has exalted her 410

DISCOURSE V.

ON THE VISITATION OF MABT.

Mary Is the treasarer of all the divine graces; therefore he who
desires graces, should have recourse to Mary; and he who
has recourse to Mary, should be secure of obtaining the
graces he wishes 436

DISCOURSE VI.

ON THE PURIFICATION OF MARY.

The great sacrifice which Mary this day made to God, In offer
ing him the life of her Son 457

DISCOURSE VII.

ON THR ASSUMPTION OF MARY.

How precious was the death of Mary. 1st. By the favors which
accompanied it. 2d. By the manner in which it took place.. 47ft

DISCOURSE VIII.

ANOTHER DISCOURSE ON THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY.

let. How glorious was the triumph of Mary when she ascended
to heaven! 2d. How exalted was the throne to which she
was raised in heaven! 496

DISCOURSE IX.

ON THE DOLORS OF MARY.

Ifary was queen of martyrs, because her martyrdom was longer
and greater thau that of all the martyrs 515

REFLECTIONS

ON EACH OP THE SEVEN DOLORS IN PARTICULAB.

ON THE FIRST DOLOR.

Of St. Simeon s prophecy 68T

CONTENTS.

OK THE SECOND DOLOR.

Of five flight of Jesus into Egypt Ml

ON THE THEM) DOLOR.

Of the JOBS of Jesus in the temple,.. , 651

ON THE FOURTH DOLOR.

Of the meeting of Mary with Jesus, when he went to Calvary. .. 560

ON THE FIFTH DOLOR.

Of the death of Jesus 668

ON THE SIXTH DOLOR.

The piercing of the side of Jesus, and his descent from the
cross 577

ON THE SEVENTH DOLOR,

Of the burial of tbft body of Jesus ....,..., 685

OF THE VIRTUES OF THE MOST HOLY
MARY.

SECTION 1. Of the humility of Mary 694

2. Of the charity of Mary towards God 603

8. Of the charity of Mary for her neighbor 611

4. Of the faith of Mary 615

6. Of the hope of Mary 620

6. Of the chastity of Mary 623

7. Of the poverty of Mary ... 629

8. Of the obedience of Mary 632

9. Of the patience of Mary 636

10. Of the prayer of Mary 639

Various practices of devotion to the divine mother 643

Various additional examples appertaining to the most holy Mary. 679
Kovena of meditations for the nine days preceding the Feast of

the Purification of Mary 727

Meditations for various feasts of Mary 749

Prayers to the divine mother for every day of the week 764

Little Rosary of the seven dolors of Mary 773

Little Rosary of the immaculate Mary 778

Various prayers to Mary 778

EJACULATIONS TO THE HOST HOLY MARY 783

ACCLAMATIONS IN PRAISE OF MARY 78*

PETITION OF TPIE AUTHOR TO JESUS
AND MARY.

Mf most loving Redeemer and Lord Jesus
Christ, I thy poor servant, knowing how pleas
ing to thee are those who seek to glorify thy
most holy mother, whom thou lovest so much,
and dost so much desire to pee loved and honor
ed by all men, I propose to publish this book of
mine which treats of her glories. I know not to
whom I could commend it but to thee, who hast
so much at heart the glory of this mother. To
thee, then, I present and dedicate it. Receive
this little offering of my love for thee and thy
beloved mother. Take it under thy protection,
and pour into the hearts of those who read it
the light of confidence in this immaculate Vir
gin, and the warmth of a burning love for her,
in whom thou hast placed the hope and refuge
of all the redeemed. And for the reward of
this, my poor effort, give me, I pray thee, that
love for Mary with which I have desired to in
flame, by this my little work, the hearts of all
those who read it.

To thee also I appeal, oh my sweetest Lady
and mother Mary. Thou knowest that in thee,
next to Jesus, I have placed all hope of my eter
nal salvation, since all the good I have receiv
ed, my conversion, my vocation to leave the
world, and whatever other graces have been
given me by God, I acknowledge them all as
11

12 PETITION OP THE AUTHOR.

coming through thee. Thou knowest that to see
thee loved by all as thou dost deserve, and to of
fer thee some token of gratitude, I have always
sought to proclaim thee everywhere, in public
and in private, and to inspire all men with a
sweet and salutary devotion to thee. I hope to
continue to do so for the remainder of my life,
even to my last breath. But I see by my ad
vanced age and declining health that the end
of my pilgrimage and my entrance into eternity
are drawing near ; therefore, I hope to give to
the world, before my death, this little book of
mine which may continue to proclaim thee for
me, and also may excite others to publish thy
glories and the great mercy which thou dost exer
cise towards thy devoted servants. I hope, my
most beloved queen, that this my poor offering,
although it falls so far short of thy merit, may be
pleasing to thy grateful heart, since it is wholly
a gift of love. Extend, then, that most kind
hand of thine with which thou hast delivered
me from the world and from hell, and accept it
and protect it as belonging to thee. But I
ask this reward for my little offering, that
henceforth I may love thee more, and that all
into whose hands this work shall fall, may be in
flamed with thy love, so that immediately their
desire may increase to love thee, and see others
love thee also; and that they may engage with
all ardor in proclaiming and promoting, as far as
possible, thy praise, and confidence in thy most
holy intercession. Thus I hope, thus may it be.

TO THE READER.

IN order that this little work of mine may
not be exposed to censure from very fastidious
critics, I have thought it best to place in a clearer
light some of the proposition* which it contains,
and which may seem too bold, or perhaps ob
scure. I here enumerate some of them, and if
others, my dear reader, should <jome under your
eye, I pray you to consider them as meant and
spoken by me according to the sense of true and
sound theology, and of the holy Roman Catholic
Church, whose obedient son I profess myself. In
the introduction, page 19, referring to chap.
5th of the book, I have said that God has or
dained that all graces should come to us through
the hands of Mary. Now this is a very consoling
truth for souls tenderly attached to the most
holy Mary, and for poor sinners who desire to be
converted. Nor should this appear to any one
inconsistent with sound theology, since its au
thor, St. Augustine, puts it forth as a general
statement, that Mary has shared, by means of
her charity, in the spiritual birth of all the mem
bers of the Church.*

A well-known author, whom no one will sus
pect of exaggeration or of fanciful and overheated
devotion, adds, that as Jesus Christ really formed
his Church on Calvary, it is plain that the holy
Virgin really co-operated with him, in a peculiar
and excellent manner, in its formation. * And
for the same reason it may be said, that if
she brought forth Jesus Christ, the head of the
Church, without pain, she did not bring forth
the body of this head without pain. Hence sho
commenced on Calvary to be, in a particular
manner, mother of the whole Church. To say
all in a few words, Almighty God, in order to
glorify the mother of the Redeemer, has or
dained that her great charity should intercede
for all those for whom her divine Son offered
and paid the superabundant ransom of his pre
cious blood, in which alone is our salvation,, life
and resurrection. It is on the basis of this doc-
rine and whatever belongs to it that I have under
taken to establish my propositions, f which the
saints in their affecting colloquies with Mary,
and in their fervent discourses concening her,
have not hesitated to assert: when an ancient
father, quoted by the celebrated Vincenzo Con-
tensone, has written: The fulness of grace was
in Christ as the head from which it flows,

but in Mary as the neck through which it is trans
mitted.* This is plainly taught by the angelio
Doctor, St. Thomas, who confirms all the fore
going in these words: The blessed Virgin is call
ed full of grace in three ways The

third, in reference to its overflowing upon all
men. For great is it in each saint if he hath
enough of grace for the salvation of many; but
this would be the greatest, if he had enough
for the salvation of all men; and it is so with
Christ and the blessed Virgin, for in every dan
ger we may obtain salvation through the glo
rious Virgin. Hence, cant. 4, v. 4 a thousand
bucklers that is, remedies against dangers
hang upon her "Mille clypei pendent ex ea."
Hence in every virtuous work we can have her
aid, and, therefore, she herself says, In me is all
hope of life and of virtue: "7n me omnis spes
vitcB etvirtuth"\ Eccli. xxiv. 25.

MY dear reader and brother in Mary, since the
devotion which has urged me to write, and now
moves you to read this book, renders us both
happy children of this good mother, if you
ever should hear any one say that I could have
spared this labor, there being so many learned
and celebrated books that treat of this subject,
answer him, I pray you, in the words of Fran-
cone the abbot, which we find in the Library
of the Fathers, that the praise of Mary is a
fountain so full that the more it extends, the
fuller it becomes, and the fuller it becomes the
more it extends;* which signifies, that the
blessed Virgin is so great and sublime, that the
more we praise her, the more there is to praise.
So that St. Augustine says: All the tongues of
men, even if all their members were changed to
tongues, would not be sufficient to praise her
as she deserves.f

I know that there are innumerable books,
both great and small, which treat of the glories
of Mary; but as these are rare or voluminous,
and not according to my plan, I have endeavor
ed to collect in a small space, from all the auth
ors at my command, the most select and pithy
sentences of the Fathers and theologians, in or
der to give devout persons an opportunity, with
little effort or expense, to inflame their ardor
by reading of the love of Mary, and especially,
to present materials to priests which may enable
them to excite by their sermons devotion to the
divine mother.

Worldly lovers are accustomed to mention
frequently and to praise the persons beloved,
that these may be praised and applauded also by
others; then how poor must we suppose the love
of those to be who boast of being lovers of
Mary, but who seldom remember to speak of her,
and inspire the love of her also in others! Not
so the true lovers of our most lovely Lady: they
would praise her everywhere, and see her loved
by all the world; and therefore in public and in
private, wherever it is in their power, they en
deavor to kindle in the hearts of all, those bless
ed flames of love with which theirs are burn
ing for their beloved queen.

But that every one may be persuaded of how
great benefit it is to himself and the people to
promote devotion to Mary, let us hear what the
Fathers say of it. St. Bonaventure declares that
those who are devoted to publishing the glorieg

18 INTRODUCTION.

of Mary, are secure of paradise ; and Richard
of St. Laurence confirms this by saying, that to
honor the queen of angels is to acquire life ever
lasting; * since our most grateful Lady, adds
the same author, pledges herself to honor in the
other life him who promises to honor her in
this; f and is there any one ignorant of the
promise made by Mary herself to those who en
gage in promoting the knowledge and love of
her upon the earth? "They that explain me shall
have life everlasting," J as the holy Church ap
plies it on the festival of her Immaculate Concep
tion. Exult, exult! oh my soul ! said St. Bona-
venture, who was so assiduous in proclaiming the
praises of Mary, and rejoice in her, because
many good things are prepared for those who
praise her; and since all the Holy Scriptures, he
added, speak in praise of Mary, let us endeavor
always with heart and tongue to celebrate this
our divine mother, that we may be conducted
by her to the kingdom of the blessed.

We are told in the revelations of St. Bridget,
that the blessed Emingo, Bishop, being accus
tomed to begin his sermons with the praises of
Mary, the Virgin herself appeared one day to
the saint, and said to her: "Tell that prelate who

is accustomed to commence his discourses with
my praises, that I will be his mother, and that I
will present his soul to God, and that he shall
die a good death;"* and he indeed died like a
saint, in prayer and in celestial peace. Mary
appeared before his death to another religious, a
Dominican, who was accustomed to terminate
his sermons by speaking of her. She defended
him from the assaults of the demons, comforted
him, and bore away with her his happy soul, f

The devout Thomas a Kempis represents Mary
as commending to her Son those who publish her
praise, and saying, "Oh, my Son, have compas
sion on the souls of thy lovers, and of those who
speak in my praise.J

As far as the advantage of the people is con
cerned, St. Anselm says, that the sacred womb
of Mary having been made the way of salvation
for sinners, sinners cannot but be converted and
saved by discourses in praise of Mary. If the
assertion is true and incontrovertible, as I believe
it to be, and as I shall prove, in the fifth chap
ter of this book, that all graces are dispensed
by the hand of Mary alone, and that all those
who are saved, are saved solely by means of this
divine mother; it may be said, as a necessary
consequence, that the salvation of all depends

upon preaching Mary, and confidence in her in
tercession. We know that St. Bernard of
Sienna sanctified Italy; St. Dominic converted
many provinces; St. Louis Bertrand, in all his
sermons, never failed to exhort his hearers to
practise devotion towards Mary; and many
others also have done the same.

I find that Father Paul Segneri, the younger,
a celebrated missionary, in every mission preach
ed a sermon on devotion to Mary, and this he
called his favorite sermon. And we can attest,
in all truth, that in our missions, where we have
an invariable rule not to omit the sermon on our
Lady, no discourse is so profitable to the people,
or excites more compunction among them, than
that on the mercy of Mary. I say on the mercy
of Mary: for St. Bernard says, we may praise
her humility, and marvel at her virginity; but
being poor sinners, we are more pleased and at
tracted by hearing of her mercy; for to this we
more affectionately cling, this we more often
remember and invoke.* Therefore in this little
book, leaving to other authors the description
of the other merits of Mary, I have confined my
self especially to treating of her great compassion
and her powerful intercession; having collected,
as far as possible, with the labor of years, all
that the holy Fathers and the most celebrated
authors have said of the mercy and power of

Mary; and because these attributes of the bless*
ed Virgin are wonderfully set forth in the great
prayer of the Salve Regina, approved by the
Church and required by her to be recited the
greater part of the year by all the clergy, secular
and regular, I have undertaken, in the first
place, to explain in separate discourses this
most devout prayer. Besides this, I believed it
would be acceptable to the servants of Mary, if
I added discourses on her principal festivals and
upon the virtues of our divine mother, placing
at the conclusion of them the practices of
devotion most in use among her servants, and
approved by the Church.

Devout reader, if this little work of mine
pleases you, as I hope it will, I pray you to com
mend me to the holy Virgin, that I may obtain
great confidence in her protection. Ask for me
this grace, and I will ask the same for you, who*
ever you may be, who bestow on me this char-
ity. Oh, blessed is he who clings with love and
confidence to those two anchors of salvation,
Jesus and Mary ! He certainly will not be lost.
Let us both say, oh my reader, with the devout
Alphonso Rodriguez: Jesus and Mary, my sweet
loves, for you I will suffer, for you I will die;
may I be wholly yours, may I be in nothing my
own.* May we love Jesus and Mary, and be
come saints, since we can aspire and hope for no
greater happiness than this. Farewell, till we

meet in heaven at the feet of this sweet mothef
and her dearly beloved Son, to praise them, to
thank them, and love them, in their immediate
presence through all eternity. Amen.

PRAYER. TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN
TO OBTAIN A GOOD DEATH,

OH Mary, sweet refuge of miserable sinners, at
the moment when my soul departs from this
world, my sweetest mother, by the grief that
thou didst endure when thou wast present at the
death of thy Son upon the cross, then assist me
with thy mercy. Ketp far from me my infernal
enemies, and come thyself to take my soul and
present it to my eternal Judge. Do not aban
don me, oh my queen. Thou, next to Jesus, must
be my comfort in that dreadful moment. En
treat thy Son that in his goodness, he will grant
me the favor to die clasping thy feet, and to
breathe out my soul in his sacred wounds, say
ing, Jesus and Mary, I give you my heart and my
oul.

THE GLORIES OF MARY.

PART I.

ON THE SAL YE REGINA.

It treats of the various and abundant graces which the
mother of God bestows on her devoted wrvants, in
several discourses of the Salve Regina.

CHAPTER I.

SALVE REGINA, MATER MISERICORDLfi.
Hail queen, Mother of mercy.

SECTION I.

F THE GREAT CONFIDENCE WE SHOULD HAVE IN MARY,
BECAUSE SHE IS THE QUEEN OF MERCY.

THE Holy Church justly honors the great Vir
gin Mary, and would have her honored by all
men with the glorious title of queen, because she
has been elevated to the dignity of mother of the
King of kings. If the Son is king, says St. Athan-
asius, his mother must necessarily be considered
and entitled queen.* From the moment that
Mary consented, adds St. Bernardine of Sienna,
to become the mother of the Eternal Word, she
merited the title of queen of the world and all
creatures. f If the flesh of Mary, says St. Arnold,
abbot, was the flesh of Jesus, how can the moth
er be separated from the Son in his kingdom?
Hence it follows that the regal glory must not

only be considered as common to the mother and
the Son, but even the same.*

If Jesus is the king of the whole world, Mary
is also queen of the whole world :f therefore,
says St. Bernardine of Sienna, all creatures who
serve God ought also to serve Mary; for all an
gels and men, and all things that are in heaven
and on earth being subject to the dominion of
God, are also subject to the dominion of the glo
rious Virgin. | Hence Guerric, abbot, thus ad
dresses the divine mother: Continue, Mary, con
tinue in security to reign; dispose, according to
thy will, of every thing belonging to thy Son,
for thou, being mother and spouse of the King of
the world, the kingdom and power over all
creatures is due to thee as queen.

Mary, then, is queen; but let all learn for their
consolation that she is a mild and merciful
queen, desiring the good of us poor sinners.
Hence the holy Church bids us salute her in this
prayer, and name her the Queen of Mercy.
The very name of queen signifies, as blessed
Albertus Magnus remarks, compassion, and pro
vision for the poor; differing in this from the ti-

tie of empress, which signifies severity and rig
or. The greatness of kings and queens consists
in comforting the wretched as Seneca says.* So
that whereas tyrants, in reigning, have only
their own advantage in view, kings should have
for their object the good of their subjects.
Therefore at the consecration of kings their
heads are anointed with oil, which is the symbol
of mercy, to denote that they, in reigning,
should above all things cherish thoughts of kind
ness and beneficence towards their subjects.

Kings should then principally occupy them
selves with works of mercy, but not to the neg
lect of the exercise of justice towards the guilty,
when it is required. Not so Mary, who, although
queen, is not queen of justice, intent upon the
punishment of the guilty, but queen of mercy,
solely intent upon compassion and pardon for
sinners. Accordingly, the Church requires us
explicitly to call her .queen of mercy. The
High Chancellor of Paris, John Gerson, med
itating on the words of David, "These two
things have I heard, that power belongeth to
God, and mercy to thee, O Lord,"f says, that the
kingdom of God consisting of justice and mercy,
the Lord has divided it: he has reserved the
kingdom of justice for himself, and he has
granted the kingdom of mercy to Mary, ordain
ing that all the mercies which are dispensed t

men should pass through the hands of Mary,
and should be bestowed according to her good
pleasure.* St. Thomas confirms this in his pref
ace to the Canonical Epistles, saying that the
holy Virgin, when she conceived the divine
Word in her womb, and brought him forth,
obtained the half of the kingdom of God by be
coming queen of mercy, Jesus Christ remaining
king of justice, f

The eternal Father constituted Jesus Christ
king of justice, and therefore made him the
universal judge of the world; hence the prophet
sang: "Give to the king thy judgment, Oh
God; and to the king s son thy justice."! Here
a learned interpreter takes up the subject, and
says: Oh Lord, thou hast given to thy Son thy
justice, because thou hast given to the mother
of the king thy mercy.g And St. Bonaventure
happily varies the passage above quoted by say
ing: Give to the king thy judgment, Oh God,
and to his mother thy mercy. || Ernest, Arch
bishop of Prague, also says, that the eternal
Father has given to the Son the office of judging
and punishing, and to the mother the office of

compassionating and relieving the wretched.*
Therefore the Prophet David predicted that
God himself, if I may thus express it, would
consecrate Mary queen of mercy, anointing her
with the oil of gladness,! in order that all of us
miserable children of Adam might rejoice in the
thought of having in heaven that great queen,
so full of the unction of mercy and pity for us;
as St. Bonaventure says: Oh Mary, so full of
the unction of mercy and the oil of pity, that
God has anointed thee with the oil of gladness !J
And how well does blessed Alberlus Magnus
here apply the history of Queen Esther, who
was indeed a type of Our Queen Mary! We
read in the 4th chap, of the Book of Esther, that
in the reign of King Assuerus, there went forth,
throughout his kingdom, a decree commanding
the death of all the Jews. Then Mardochai^
who was one of the condemned, committed their
cause to Esther, that she might intercede with
the king to obtain the revocation of the sentence.
At first Esther refused to take upon herself
this office, fearing that it would excite the an
ger of the king more. But Mardochai rebuked
her, and bade her remember that she must not
think of saving herself alone, as the Lord had
placed her upon the throne to obtain salvation
for all the Jews: "Think not that thou mayest

save thy life only, because thou art in the king i
house, more than all the Jews." * Thus said
Mardochai to Queen Esther, and thus might we
poor sinners say to our Queen Mary, if she were
ever reluctant to intercede with God for our de
liverance from the just punishment of our sins.
Think not that thou mayest save thy life only,
because thou art in the king s house, more than
all men. Think not, oh Lady, that God has ex
alted thee to be queen of the world, only to se
cure thy own welfare; but also that thou, being
so greatly elevated, mayest the more compassion
ate and the better relieve us miserable sinners.
Assuerus, when he saw Esther before him, af
fectionately inquired of her what she had come
to ask of him: "What is thy petition?" Then
the queen answered, "If I have found favor in
thy sight, oh king, give me my people for which
I request." f Assuerus heard her, and imme
diately ordered the sentence to be revoked.
Now, if Assuerus granted to Esther, because
he loved her, the salvation of the Jews, will not
God graciously listen to Mary, in his boundless
love for her, when she prays to him for those
poor sinners who recommend themselves to her
and says to him:If I have found favor in thy sight,
oh King, my King and my God, if I have ever
found favor with Thee (and well does the di

vine mother know herself to be the blessed, the
fortunate, the only one of the children of men
who found the grace lost by man; she knows
herself to be the beloved of her Lord, more be
loved than all the saints and angels united), give
me my people for which I request: if thou lovest
me, she says to him, give me, oh my Lord, these
sinners in whose behalf I entreat Thee. Is it
possible that God will not graciously hear her?
Is there any one who does not know the pow
er of Mary s prayers with God? The law of
clemency is on her tongue. * Every prayer of
hers is as a law established by our Lord, that
mercy shall be exercised towards those for whom
Mary intercedes. St. Bernard asks, Why does
the Church name Mary Queen of Mercy f and
answers, Because we believe that she opens the
depths of the mercy of God, to whom she will,
when she will, and as she will; so that not
even the vilest sinner is lost, if Mary protects
him. f

But it may, perhaps, be feared that Mary dis
dains interposing in behalf of some sinners, be
cause she finds them so laden with sins ? Per
haps the majesty and sanctity of this great queen
should alarm us? No, says St. Gregory, in pro
portion to her greatness and holiness are her clem
ency and mercy towards sinners who desire to

amend, and who have recourse to her.* Kings
and queens inspire terror by the display of their
majesty, and their subjects fear to enter their
presence; but what fear, says St. Bernard, can
the wretched have of going to this queen of mercy
since she never shows herself terrible or aus
tere to those who seek her, but all sweetness and
kindness?f Mary not only gives, but she her
self presents to us milk and wool: the milk of
mercy to inspire us with confidence, and wool to
shield us from the thunderbolts of divine justice!
Suetonius narrates of the Emperor Titus, that
he never could refuse a favor to any one who
asked it, and that he even sometimes promised
more than he could perform; and he answered to
one who admonished him of this, that a prince
should not dismiss any one from his presence dis
satisfied. Titus said this, but, in reality, was
perhaps often either guilty of falsehood, or fail
ed in his promises. But our queen cannot lie,
and can obtain whatever she wishes for her de
voted servants. She has a heart so kind and
compassionate, says Blosius, that she cannot
send away dissatisfied any one who invokes her
aid.J But, as St. Bernard says, how couldst
thou, oh Mary, refuse succor to the wretched,
when thou art queen of mercy? and who are the

ubjects of inercy, if not the miserable? Thou art
the queen of mercy, and I the most miserable of
all sinners; if I, then, am the first of thy sub
jects, then thou shouldst have more care of me
than of all others.*

Have pity on us, then, oh queen of mercy,
and give heed to our salvation; neither say to us,
oh most holy Virgin, as St. Gregory of Nico-
media would add, that thou canst not aid us be
cause of the multitude of our sins, when thou
hast such power and pity that no number of
sins can ever surpass it! Nothing resists thy
power, since thy Creator and ours, while he hon
ors thee as his mother, considers thy glory as
his own, and exulting in it, as a Son, grants thy
petitions as if he were discharging an obliga
tion.! By this he means to say, that though
Mary is under an infinite obligation to her Son
for having elected her to be his mother yet it
cannot be denied that the Son also is greatly in
debted to his mother for having given him his
human nature; whence Jesus, as if to recompense
Mary as he ought, while he enjoys this his
glory, honors her especially by always gracious
ly listening to her prayers.

this queen, knowing how powerful she is with
God, and at the same time how rich and full of
mercy; so much so that there is no one on earth
who does not share in the mercies and favors of
Mary! This the blessed Virgin herself reveal
ed to St. Bridget: "I am, " she said to her, "the
queen of heaven and the mother of mercy; I am
the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for
sinners to God; neither is there living on earth a
sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of
my compassion; for everyone, if he receives noth
ing else through my intercession, receives the
grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than
he otherwise would be; no one, therefore," she
added, "who is not entirely accursed" (by which
is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pro
nounced against the damned), "is so entirely cast
off by God that he may not return and enjoy
his mercy if he invokes my aid. I am called by
all the mother of mercy, and truly the mercy of
God towards men has made me so merciful tow
ards them." And then she concluded by say
ing/ Therefore he shall be miserable, and for
ever miserable in another life, who in this, being
able, does not have recourse to me, who am
BO compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire
to aid sinners."*

Let us then have recourse, let us always have
recourse to this most sweet queen, if we would
be sure of our salvation; and if the sight of our
sins terrifies and disheartens us, 1st us remem
ber that Mary was made queen of mercy for this
very end, that she might save by her protection
the greatest and most abandoned sinners who
have recourse to her. They are to be her crown
in heaven, as her divine spouse has said: "Come
from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus,
come; thou shalt be crowned from the dens of
the lions, from the mountains of the leopards. "*
And what are these dens of wild beasts and
monsters, if not miserable sinners, whose souls
become dens of sins, the most deformed mon
sters? Now, by these same sinners, as Rupert,
the abbot, remarks, who are saved by thy means,
oh great Queen Mary, thou wilt be crowned in.
heaven; for their salvation will be thy crown, a
crown indeed worthy and fit for a queen of
mercy ;f and let the following example illustrate
this.

EXAMPLE.

We read in the life of sister Catherine, an
Augustinian nun, that in the place where that
servant of God lived, there lived also a woman

named Mary, who, in her youth, was a sinner,
and obstinately persevered in her evil courses,
even to extreme old age. For this she waa
banished by her fellow-citizens, forced to live
in a cave beyond the limits of the place, and
died in a state of loathsome corruption, aban
doned by all, and without the sacraments; and
on this account was buried in a field, like a
beast. Now sister Catherine, who was accustom
ed to recommend very affectionately to God the
souls of those who had departed this life, after
learning the miserable death o/ this poor old
woman, did not think of praying for her, as she
and every one else believed her already among
the damned. Four years having past, a soul
from purgatory one day appeared to her, and
said, "Sister Catherine, how unhappy is my fate!
you commend to God the souls of all those who
die, and for my soul alone you have had no
pity." "And who are you?" said the servant
of God. "I am," answered she, "that poor
Mary who died in the cave." "How! are you
saved?" exclaimed sister Catherine. "Yes, I am
saved," she said, "by the mercy of the Virgin
Mary. ? "And how? "When I saw death
drawing near, finding myself laden with sins,
and abandoned by all, I turned to the mother
of God and said to her, Lady, thou art the ref
uge of the abandoned, behold me at this hour
deserted by all; thou art my only hope, thou
alone canst help me; have pity on me. The
Jboly Virgin obtained for me the grace of

GLORIES OF MARY. 37

making an act of contrition; I died and am saved,
and my queen has also obtained for me the
grace that my pains should be abridged, and
that I should, by suffering intensely for a short
time, pass through that purification which
otherwise would have lasted many years. A
few masses only are needed to obtain my release
from purgatory. I pray thee cause them to be
offered for me, and I promise to pray God and
Mary for thee." Sister Catherine immediately
caused those masses to be said for her, and
that soul, after a few days, appeared to her
again, more brilliant than the sun, and said to
her, "I thank thee, sister Catherine: behold I
am now going to paradise to sing the mercy of
God and pray for thee."

PRAYER.

Oh Mother of my God and my Lady Mary,
as a poor wounded and loathsome wretch pre
sents himself to a great queen, I present my
self to thee, who art the queen of heaven and
earth. From the lofty throne on which
thou art seated, do not disdain, I pray thee, to
cast thy eye upon me, a poor sinner. God hath
made thee so rich in order that thou rnayest suc
cor the needy, and hath made thee queen of
mercy that thou mayest help the miserable, look
upon me, then, and have pity on me. Look upon
me, and do not leave me until thou hast changed
me from a sinner into a saint. I see I merit noth-

38 GLORIES OF MARY.

ing, or rather I merit for my ingratitude to be
deprived of all the graces which, by thy means,
I have received from the Lord. But thou, who
art the mother of mercy, dost not require merits,
but miseries, that thou mayest succor those who
are in need; and who is more poor and more
needy than I?

Oh glorious Virgin, I know that thou, being
queen of the universe, art also my queen; and I,
in a more especial manner, would dedicate my
self to thy service; that thou mayest dispose of
me as seemeth best to thee. Therefore I say to
thee with St. Bonaventure, Oh, Lady, I submit
myself to thy control, that thou mayest rule and
govern me entirely. Do not leave me to
myself.* Rule me, oh my queen, and do not
leave me to myself. Command me, employ me
as thou wilt, and punish me if I do not obey
thee, for very salutary will be the punishments
that come from thy hand. I would esteem it a
greater thing to be thy servant than Lord of
the whole earth. Thine I am, save me!\ Ac
cept me, oh Mary, for thy own and attend to
my salvation, as I am thine own. I no longer will
be my own, I give myself to thee. And if
hitherto I have so poorly served thee, having
lost so many good occasions of honoring thee,
for the time to come I will unite myself to thy
most loving and most faithful servants. No one

from this time henceforth shall surpass me in
honoring and loving thee, my most lovely
queen. This I promise, and I hope to perform
with thy assistance. Amen."

SECTION II.

HOW MUCH GREATER SHOULD BE OUR CONFIDENCE IN
MARY BECAUSE SHE IS OUR MOTHER.

Not by chance, nor in vain, do the servants of
Mary call her mother, and it would seem that
they cannot invoke her by any other name, and
are never weary of calling her mother; mother,
indeed, for she is truly our mother, not accord
ing to the flesh, but the spiritual mother of our
souls and of our salvation. Sin, when it de
prived our souls of divine grace, also deprived
them of life. Hence, when they were dead in
misery and sin, Jesus our Redeemer came with
an excess of mercy and love to restore to us, by
his death upon the cross, that lost life, as he has
himself declared : "I am come that they may have
life, and may have it more abundantly."*
More, abundantly, because, as the theologians
teach us, Jesus Christ by his redemption
brought us blessings greater than the injury
Adam inflicted upon us by his sin; he reconciled
us to God, and thus became the father of our
souls, under the new law of grace, as the

* Yeni, ut vitam. habearit et abuudantiua habeant. Joab.

40 GLORIES OF MARY.

prophet Isaiah predicted: "The Father of the
world to come, the Prince of peace."* But if
Jesus is the father of our souls, Mary is the
mother; for, in giving us Jesus, she gave us the
true life; and offering upon Calvary the life of
her Son for our salvation, she then brought us
forth to the life of divine grace.

At two different times, then as the holy Fathers
show us, Mary became our spiritual mother; the
first when she was found worthy of conceiving
in her virginal womb the Son of God, as the
blessed Albertus Magnus says.

St. Bernardine of Sienna more distinctly teach
es us that when the most holy Virgin, on the an
nunciation of the angel, gave her consent to be
come mother of the eternal Word, which he
awaited before making himself her Son, she by
this consent even from that time demanded of
God, with lively affection, our salvation; and
she was so earnestly engaged in obtaining it,
that from that time she has borne us, as it were,
in her womb, as a most loving mother.f

St. Luke says, speaking of the birth of our
Saviour, that Mary "brought forth her first-born
son."J Therefore, says a certain writer, if the
evangelist affirms that Mary brought forth her
first-born, is it to be supposed that she afterwards

had othe* children? But the same author adds; If
it is of faith that Mary had no other children ac
cording to the flesh except Jesus, then she must
have other spiritual children, and these we are.*
Our Lord revealed this to St. Gertrude, who,
reading one day the passage of the Gospel just
quoted, was troubled, not knowing how to un
derstand it, that Mary being mother of Jesus
Christ alone, it could be said that he was her
first-born. And God explained it to her, by tell
ing her that Jesus was her first-born according
to the flesh, but men were her second-born ac
cording to the spirit.

And this explains what is said of Mary in
the holy Canticles: "Thy belly is as a heap of
wheat, set about with lilies."f St. Ambrose ex
plains this and says: Although in the pure womb
of Mary there was only one grain of wheat, which
was Jesus Christ, yet it is called a heap of grain,
because in that one grain were contained all the
elect, of whom Mary was to be the mother. J
Hence, William the Abbot wrote, Mary, in
bringing forth Jesus, who is our Saviour and
our life, brought forth all of us to life and salva
tion^

The second time in which Mary brought us
forth to grace was, when on Calvary, she offer
ed to the eternal Father with so much sorrow of
heart the life of her beloved Son for our salva
tion. Wherefore, St. Augustine asserts, that,
having then co-operated by her love with Christ
in the birth of the faithful to the life of grace,
she became also by this co-operation the spirit
ual mother of us all, who are members of our
head, Jesus Christ.* This is also the meaning
of what is said of the blessed Virgin in the
sacred Canticles: "They have made me the
keeper in the vineyards; my vineyard I have not
kept."f Mary, to save our souls, was willing to
sacrifice the life of her Son,J as William the Ab
bot remarks. And who was the soul of Mary, but
her Jesus, who was her life and all her love?
Wherefore St. Simeon announced to her that
her soul would one day be pierced by a sword of
sorrow ; which was the very spear that pierced
the side of Jesus, who was the soul of Mary.
And then she in her sorrow brought us forth to
eternal life; so that we may all call ourselves
children of the dolors of Mary. She, our most
loving mother, was always and wholly united to

the divine will; whence St. Bonaventure remarks,
that when she saw the love of the eternal
Father for men, who would have his Son die for
our salvation, and the love of the Son in wishing:
to die for us, she too, with her whole will, offer
ed her Son and consented that he should die
that we might be saved, in order to conform
herself to that exceeding love of the Father and
Son for the human race.*

It is true that, in dying for the redemption of
the world, Jesus wished to be alone. I have
trodden the wine-press alone,f "Torcular calcavi
eolus." But when God saw the great desire of
Mary to devote herself also to the salvation of men,
he ordained that by the sacrifice and offering of
the life of this same Jesus, she might co-operate
with him in the work of our salvation, and thus
become mother of our souls. And this our
Saviour signified, when, before expiring, he saw
from the cross his mother and the disciple St.
John both standing near him, and first spoke to
Mary: Behold tny son, "Ecce filius tuus;"J as
if he said to her: Behold the man who, by the of
fering thou hast made of my life for his salva
tion, is already born to grace. And then turn*
ing to the disciple, he said: Behold thy mother,
"Ecce mater tua." By which words, says St.

Bernardino of Sienna, Mary was then made
mother not only of St. John, but of all
men, for the love she bore them. * On this ac
count, as Silveira observes, St. John himself,
when recording this fact in his Gospel, wrote,
"After that he said to the disciple: "Behold
thy mother."f Let it be remarked that Jesus
Christ did not say this to John, but to the dis
ciple, to signify that the Saviour appointed
Mary for common mother of all those who, be
ing Christians, bear the name of his disciples. J
I am the mother of fair love, "Ego sum
mater pulchrse dilectionis," said Mary; because
her love, as an author remarks, which renders
the souls of men beautiful in the eye of God,
prompts her, as a loving mother, to receive
us for her children. || And as a mother loves
her children, and watches over their welfare, so
thou, oh our most sweet queen, lovest us, and
dost procure our happiness, says St. Bonaven-

Oh, happy those who live under the protection
of a mother so loving and so powerful! The
prophet David, although Mary was not yet

born, besought of God salvation, by dedicating
himself to Mary as her son, and thus prayed;
"Save the son of thy handmaid."* Whose
handmaid?" asks St. Augustine,f "she who says:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord."J And who,
says Cardinal Bellarmine, who would dare to
snatch these children from the bosom of Mary,
where they have taken refuge from their ene
mies? What fury of hell or of passion can.
conquer them, if they place their trust in the
protection of this great mother? It is narrat
ed of the whale, that when she sees her young
in peril, from the tempest or their pursuers, she
opens her mouth and receives them into her
bowels. Just so, says Novarino, does this com
passionate mother of the faithful, when the
tempest of the passions is raging; She then,
with maternal affection, protects them as it were
in her bowels, and continues to shelter them un
til she has placed them in the secure haven of
paradise.] Oh, most loving mother! Oh, most
compassionate mother, be ever blessed!
and may that God be ever blessed, who
has given us thee as a mother, and as a secure
refuge in all the dangers of this life. Thebless-

ed Virgin herself revealed this to St. Bridget,
saying: "As a mother who sees her son exposed
to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort
to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for
my children, sinful though they be, if they come
to me for help."* Behold, then, how in every
battle with hell we shall always conquer, and cer
tainly conquer, if we have recourse to the mother
of God and our mother, always repeating: "We
fly to thy protection, oh holy mother of God;
we fly to thy protection, oh holy mother of
God."f Oh, how many victories have the
faithful obtained over hell, by having recourse
to Mary with this short but powerful prayer!
That great servant of God, Sister Mary of the
Crucifixion, a Benedictine nun, by this means
always conquered the evil spirits.

Be joyful then, all ye children of Mary; re
member that she adopts as her children all those
who wish her for their mother. Joyful; for what
fear have you of being lost when this mother
defends and protects you? Thus says St. Bona-
venture: Every one who loves this good mother
and trusts in her protection, should take cour
age and repeat: What do you fear, oh my soul?
The cause of thy eternal salvation will not be
lost, as the final sentence depends upon Jesus,
who is thy brother, and upon Mary who is thy

* Ita ego facio, et faciam omnibus peccatoribus misericordiam

ieam potentibus. Lib. 4, c. 38.

t Sub tuum presidium confugimus, sancta Dei genetrix.

GLORIES OF MARY. 47

mother.* And St. Anselm full of joy at this
thought, exclaims, in order to encourage us:
Oh, blessed confidence! Oh, secure refuge!
The mother of God is my mother also. With
what certainty may we hope, since our salvation
depends upon the sentence of a good brother
and of a kind motherjf Hear, then, our mother
who calls us, and says to us; "Whosoever is a
little one, let him come to me."J Little chil
dren have always on their lips the word moth
er, and in all the dangers to which they are ex
posed, and in all their fears, they cry mother,
Ah, most sweet Mary! Ah, most loving moth
er ! this is exactly what thou dost desire;
that we become little children, and always
call upon thee in our dangers,and always have re
course to thee, for thou wishest to aid and save
us, as thou hast saved all thy children who have
had recourse to thee.

In the history of the foundations of the Com
pany of Jesus, in the kingdom of Naples, is re
lated the following story of a noble youth of
Scotland, named William Elphinstone. He was
a relation of King James. Born a heretic, he

48 GLORIES OF MARY.

followed the false sect to which he belonged;
but enlightened by divine grace, which showed
him his errors, he went to France, where, with
the assistance of a good Jesuit father, who was
like himself a Scotchman, and still more by the
intercession of the blessed Virgin, he at length
saw the truth, abjured heresy, and became a
Catholic. He went afterwards to Rome, where
a friend of his found him one day very much
afflicted, and weeping. He asked him the cause,
and he answered, that in the night his mother
had appeared to him and said: "My son, it is
well for thee that thou hast entered the true
Church; I am already lost, because I died in her
esy." From that time he became more fervent
in his devotion to Mary, chose her for his moth
er, and by her was inspired to become a re
ligious. He made a vow to do so, but being ill,
he went to Naples to restore his health by a
change of air. But the Lord ordered it so that
he should die in Naples, and die a religious; for,
having become dangerously ill soon after his
arrival there, he by prayers and tears obtained
from the superiors admittance, and when about
receiving the viaticum, he made his vows in pres
ence of the blessed sacrament, and was enrolled
in the society. After this, in the tenderness of
his feelings, he gave thanks to his mother Mary
for having rescued him from heresy, and brought
him to die in the true Church, and in a religious
house in the midst of his brethren. Therefore,
he exclaimed: "Oh! how glorious it is to die in

GLORIES OF MARY. *$

the midst of so many angels!" Being exhorted
to take a little rest, he answered: "Ah, this is
not the time to rest when the end of my life is
drawing near." Before dying, he said to the
persons present: "Brethren, do you not see the
angels of heaven around me?" One of the
religious having heard him murmuring some
thing to himself, asked him what he had said.
He answered, that his angel-guardian had re-
yealed to him that he should be in purgatory but
a short time, and would soon enter paradise.
Then he began again to talk with his sweet
mother Mary, and repeating the word, mother,
mother, he tranquilly expired, like a child falling
asleep in the arms of its mother. Soon after, it
was revealed to a devout religious that he had
already entered paradise.

PRAYER.

Oh, my most holy mother, how is it possible
that, having so holy a mother, I should be so
wicked? A mother so inflamed with love to
God, and that I should so love creatures? A
mother so rich in virtue, and that I should be so
poor? Oh, my most amiable mother! I no long-
er deserve, it is true, to be thy son, because by
my bad life I have rendered myself unworthy.
I am content if thou wilt accept me as thy ser
vant. I am ready to renounce all the kingdoms
of the earth, to be admitted among the lowest
of thy servants. Yes, I am content, but do not

50 GLORIES OF MARY.

forbid me to call thee my mother. This name
wholly consoles me, melts me, and reminds me
of my obligation to love thee. This name en
courages me to confide in thee. When I am the
most terrified at the thought of my sins and of
the divine justice, I feel myself comforted by
the remembrance that thou art my mother,
Permit ms, then, to call thee my mother, my
sweetest mother. Thus I call thee, and thus I
will ever call thee. Thou, next to God, shalt al
ways be my hope, my refuge, and my love, in
this valley of tears. And thus I hope to die,
commending my soul, at the last moment, into
thy sacred hands, saying: "My mother, my
mother Mary, help me, have pity on me."
Amen.

SECTION III.

HOW GREAT IS THE LOVE OF OUR MOTHER FOR US.

IP, then, Mary is our mother, let us consider
how much she loves us. The love of parents for
their children is a necessary love, and for this
reason, as St. Thomas observes,* children are
commanded in the divine law to love their par
ents; but there is no command, on the other
hand, given to parents to love their children,
for love towards one s own offspring is a love
so deeply planted in the heart by nature her-

* Opusc. 60,

GLORIES OF MARY. 51

self, that even the wild beasts, as St. Ambrose
says, never fail to love their young.* It is said
that even tigers, hearing the cry of their whelps
when they are taken by the hunters, will plunge
into the sea to swim after the vessels where they
are confined. If, then, says our most loving
mother Mary, even tigers cannot forget their
young, how can I forget to love you, my chil
dren ? And, she adds, even if it should happen
that a mother could forget her child, it is not
possible that I can forget a soul which is my
child, f

Mary is our mother, not according to tHe
flesh, but by love: "I am the mother of fair
love. "I Hence she becomes our mother only on
account of the love she bears us; and she glories,
says a certain author, in being the mother of
love; because, having taken us for her children,
she is all love towards us. Who can describe
the love of Mary for us miserable creatures?
Arnold of Carnotensis says that, at the death of
Jesus Christ, she ardently desired to die with
her Son for our sake.|| So that, as St. Ambrose
adds, when her Son hung dying on the cross,

Mary offered herself to his murderers, that she
might give her life for us.*

But let us consider the reasons of this love, for
thus we shall better understand how this good
mother loves us. The first reason of the great
love that Mary bears to men, is the great love
she bears to God. Love to God and man is con
tained in the same precept, as St. John has writ
ten: "This commandment we have from God, that
he who loveth God, love also his brother ;"f so
that one increases as the other increases. Hence
what have the saints not done for love of the
neighbor, because they have loved God so much?
They have gone so far as to expose and lose
liberty and even life for his salvation. Let us
read what St. Francis Xavier did in India, where,
for the sake of the souls of those barbarians, he
climbed mountains, and exposed himself to in
numerable dangers to find those wretched beings,
in the caverns where they dwelt like wild beasts,
and to lead them to God. St. Francis de Sales,
to convert the heretics of the province of Chab-
lais, risked his life by crossing a river every day
for a year, on his hands and knees, upon a fro
zen beam, that he might go to the other side to
preach to those stubborn men. St. Paulinus be
came a slave, to obtain liberty for the son of a
poor widow. St. Fidelis, to bring the heretics of a

iSnrtain place back to God, willingly consented,
in preaching to them, to lose his life. The
saints, then, because they have loved God so
much, have done much for love of the neighbor.
But who has loved God more than Mary? She
loved God more, in the first moment of her life,
than all the saints and angels have loved him
in the whole course of theirs; as we shall con
sider at length, when we speak of the virtues of
Mary. She herself revealed to sister Mary of
the Crucifixion,* that the fire of love with which
she burned for God was so great, that it would
in a moment inflame heaven and earth; and that,
in comparison to it, all the flames of the burn
ing love of the seraphim were as cool breezes.
Therefore, as there is none among the blessed
spirits who loves God more than Mary; so there
is, and can be none, except God, who loves us
more than this our most loving mother. If the
love of all mothers for their children, of all hus
bands for their wives, and of all saints and angels
for their devoted servants, were united, it would
not be so great as the love that Mary bears to
one soul alone. Father Nierembergh says that
the love which all mothers have borne to their
children is a shadow when compared with the
love which Mary bears to any one of us. Truly
she alone loves us more, he adds, than all the
angels and saints united.

Moreover, our mother loves us much, because

Vita, Lib. 2, cap. 5.

54 GLORIES OF MARY.

we have been commended to her as children by her
beloved Jesus, when, before expiring, he said to
her: "Woman, behold thy son;"* signifying by
the person of John, all men, as we have be
fore remarked. These were the last words of
her Son to her. The last remembrances left by
beloved friends at the moment of their death
are greatly valued, and the memory of them is
never lost. Moreover, we are children extreme
ly dear to Mary, because we cost her so much
suffering. Those children are much dearer to a
mother whose lives she has preserved; we are
those children, for whom, that we may have the
life of grace, Mary suffered the pain of sacrific
ing the dear life of her Jesus; submitting, for our
sake, to see him die before her eyes in cruel tor
ments. By this great offering of Mary we were
then born to the life of divine grace. So, then,
we are children very dear to her, because we
were redeemed at such a cost of suffering. Ac
cordingly, as we read of the love which the eter
nal Father has manifested for men by giving his
own Son to death for us, "God so loved the world
as to give his only-begotten Son :"f as St. Bonaven.
ture remarks, it may be said of Mary also, that
she so loved us as to give her only-begotten
8on.J And when did she give him to us? She
gave him to us, says Father Nieremberg, when
first she consented to his death; she gave him to

as, when others deserted him through hatred or
through fear, and she alone could have defended,
before the judges, the life of her Son. We can
easily believe that the words of so wise and ten
der a mother would have had a great power, at
least with Pilate, to induce him to abstain from
condemning to death a man whom he knew and
declared innocent. But no, Mary would not ut
ter even one word in favor of her Son, to pre
vent his death, upon which our salvation depend
ed; finally, she gave him to us again at the foot
of the cross, in those three hours when she was
witnessing his death; because then, at every
moment, she was offering up for us his life, with
the deepest grief, and the greatest love for us, at
the cost of great trouble and suffering, and with
such firmness, that if executioners had been want
ing, as St. Anselm and St. Antoninus tell us, she
herself would have crucified him in obedience to
the will of the Father, who had decreed he
should die for our salvation. And if Abraham
showed a similar fortitude in consenting to
sacrifice his son with his own hands, we must
believe that Mary would certainly have done
the same, with more resolution, as she was
holier, and more obedient than Abraham.
But to return to our subject. How grateful
should we be to Mary, for an act of so much
love! for the sacrifice she made of the life of
her Son, in the midst of so much anguish, to ob
tain salvation for us all! The Lord, indeed, re
warded Abraham for the sacrifice he was pre-

56 GLORIES OP MARY.

pared to make to him of his son Isaac; but what
can we render to Mary for the life of her Jesus,
as she has given us a Son more noble and belov
ed than the son of Abraham? This love of Mary,
says St. Bonaventure, greatly obliges us to love
her, seeing that she has loved us more than any
other created being loves us, since she has given
for us her only Son, whom she loved more than
herself.*

And from this follows another reason why we
are so much beloved by Mary: because she knows
that we have been purchased by the death of
Jesus Christ. If a mother should see a servant
redeemed by a beloved son of hers, by twenty
years of imprisonment and suffering, for this rea
son alone how much would she esteem that ser
vant! Mary well knows that her Son came upon
earth solely to save us miserable sinners, as he
himself declared: "I have come to save what
was lost."f And to save us he has consented to
lay down his life for us: "Becoming obedient
unto death."| If Mary, then, had little love
for us, she would slightly value the blood of her
Son, which was *he price of our salvation. It
was revealed to St. Elizabeth, the nun, that
Mary, from the time she was in the temple, was
always praying that God would quickly send his
Son to save the world. Now, how much more

certainly must we believe that she loves us, after
she has seen us so greatly prized by her Son,
that he deigned to purchase us at such a cost!

And because all men have been redeemed by
Jesus, Mary loves and favors all. She was seen
by St. John clothed with the sun: "And there
appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman
clothed with the sun."* She is said to be cloth
ed with the sun, because, as "There is no one
that can hide himself from his heat," f so there
is no one living on the earth who is deprived of
the love of Mary. From the heat of the sun,
as it is explained by the venerable Raymond Jor
dan, who through humility called himself the
Idiot, that is, from the love of Mary. { And
who, says St. Anthony, can comprehend the
care which this loving mother has of us all?
Therefore, to all she offers and dispenses her
mercy. For our mother has desired the sal
vation of all, and has co-operated with her Son
in the salvation of all.

It is certain that she is concerned for the
whole human race, as St. Bernard affirms ;| hence
the practice of some devout servants of Mary is
very useful, who, as Cornelius a Lapide relates,
have the habit of praying our Lord to grant

them those graces which the blessed Virgin is
seeking for them, using these words: "Oh Lord,
give me what the most holy Virgin Mary is
asking for me. "* And this is well, as &Lapide
adds, for our mother desires greater things for
us than we think of asking for ourselves. f The
devout Bernardine de Bustis says, that Mary is
more desirous to do us good, and bestow favors
upon us, than we are to receive them.J There
fore blessed Albertus Magnus applies to Mary
the words of wisdom: " She preventeth them
that covet her, so that she first showeth herself
unto them." So great is the love, says Rich
ard of St. Laurence, which this good mother
bears us, that when she perceives our neces
sities, she comes to relieve them. She hastens be
fore she is invoked. ||

If Mary, then, is good to all, even to the un*
grateful and negligent, who have but little love
for her, and seldom have recourse to her, how
much more loving must she not be to those who
love her and often invoke her! "She is easily
seen by them that love her. " ^f Ob, how easy
it is, exclaims the same blessed Albertus, for
those who love Mary to find her, and find her
full of love and pity! I love them that love

me,"*she assures us, and declares that she can
not but love those who love her. And although
our most loving lady loves all men as her chil
dren, yet, says St. Bernard, she recognizes and
loves especially those who most tenderly love
her. Those happy lovers of Mary, as the Idiot
asserts, are not only loved, but served by her.f

Leonard the Dominican, as we read in the
chronicles of his order, who was accustomed to
recommend himself two hundred times a day
to this mother of mercy, when he was on
his death-bed, saw one beautiful as a queen
by his side, who said to him: Leonard, do
you wish to die and come to my Son and me? "
"Who are you? " answered the religious. "I am
the mother of mercy," replied the Virgin; "you
have many times invoked me, and now I come
to take you: let us go to paradise." On that
same day Leonard died, and we hope that he
followed her to the kingdom of the blessed.

"Ah, most sweet Mary, blessed is he who loves
youf the venerable brother John Berchmans, of
the society of Jesus, used to say: "If I love
Mary, I am sure of perseverance, and I shall ob
tain from God whatsoever I wish." And this
devout youth was never satisfied with renewing
his intention, and of ten repeated to himself : "I
will love Mary, I will love Mary."

Oh,how much this our good mother exceeds all
her children in affection, even if they love her
to the extent of their power! "Mary is always
more loving than her lovers,"says St. Ignatius,
martyr.* Let us love her as much as St. Stanis
laus Kostka, who loved this his dear mother
so tenderly, that when he spoke of her, every
one who heard him desired to love her also;
lie invented new titles hy which he honored hef
name; he never commenced an action without
first turning to her image and asking her bless
ing; when he recited her office, her rosary, and
other prayers, he repeated them with such affec
tionate earnestness, that he seemed speaking face
to face with Mary; when he heard the Salve
Regina sung, his soul and even his countenance
was all on fire; when asked one day hy a fath
er of the society, as they were going together
to visit an altar of the blessed Virgin, how
much he loved her,"Father," he answered, "what
can I say more than she is my mother ? " And
that father tells us how the holy youth spoke
these words with such tender emotion of voice,
countenance, and heart, that he appeared not a
man,but an angel discoursing the love of Mary.

Let us love her as much as blessed Hermann,
who called her his beloved spouse, whilst he
also was honored by Mary with the same name.
As much as St. Philip Neri, who felt wholly
consoled in merely thinking of Mary, and on this

* Semper Maria cum amantibus est amantior. Ep. ad., Ep.

GLORIES OF MARY. 61

account named her his delight. As much aa
St. Bonaveiiture, who not only called her hia
lady and mother, but, to show the tender affec
tion he bore her, went so far as to call her his
heart and his soul: Hail, lady, my mother; yea,
my heart, my soul."* Let us love her as much
as her great lover St. Bernard, who loved his
sweet mother so much, that he called her "the
ravisher of hearts:" f whence the saint, in order
to express to her the ardent love he bore her,
said to her, "Hast thou not stolen my heart? " J
Let us name her our beloved mistress, as St.
Bernardine of Sienna named her, who went
every day to visit her before her sacred image,
in order to declare his love in the tender collo
quies he held with his queen. When he was
asked where he went every day, he answered
that he went to find his beloved. Let them
love her as much as St. Louis of Gonzaga, who
burned continually with so great love of Mary,
that as soon as he heard the sound of the sweet
name of his dear mother, his heart kindled, and
a flame perceptible to all, lighted up his coun
tenance. Let us love her like St. Francis Solano,
who, distracted by a holy passion for Mary,
sometimes went with a musical instrument to
sing of love before her altar, saying that, like
earthly lovers, he was serenading his beloved
queen.

* Ave Domina, mater mea; imo cor meum, auima me*.

t Raptrix cordium.

$ Nonne rapuisti cor meum?

62 GLOEIES OF MARY.

Let us love her as so many of her servants
have loved her, who had no way left of manifest
ing their love to her. Father Jerome of Trexo,
of the Society of Jesus, delighted in calling him
self the slave of Mary, and as a mark of his ser
vitude went of ten to visit her in a church: and
what did he do there? He watered the church
with the tears of that tender love which he felt
for Mary; then he wiped them with his lips, kiss
ing that pavement a thousand times, remember
ing that it was the house of his beloved mistress.
Father Diego Maryinez, of the same society, who,
on account of his devotion to our Lady, on the
feasts of Mary, was carried by angels to hea
ven, that he might see with how much devotion
they were celebrated there, said, "Would that I
had all the hearts of the angels and the saints to
love Mary as they love her. Would that I had
the lives of all men, to devote them all to the love
of Mary!" Let others love her as Charles the
son of St. Bridget loved her, who said that he
knew of nothing in the world which gave him so
much consolation as the thought of how much
Mary was beloved by God; and he added, that he
would accept every suffering rather than that
Mary should lose, if it were possible for her to
lose it, the least portion of her greatness; and if
the greatness of Mary were his, he would re
nounce it in her behalf, because she was more
worthy of it. Let us desire to sacrifice our life
in testimony of our love to Mary, as Alphonso
Rodriguez desired to do. Let us, like Francesco

GLORIES OF MARY. 61

Binanzio, a religious, and Radagunde, wife of
King Clotaire, engrave with sharp instruments
of iron upon our breast the sweet name of Mary.
Let us, with red-hot iron, impress upon our flesh
the beloved name, that it may be more distinct
and more enduring, as did her devoted servants
Battista Archinto and Agostino d Espinosa, both
of the Company of Jesus.

If, then, the lovers of Mary imitate, as much as
possible, those lovers who endeavor to make
known their affection to the person beloved, they
can never love her so much as she loves them.
I know, oh Lady, said St. Peter Damian, how
loving thou art, and that thou lovest us with un
conquerable love.* The venerable Alphonso
Rodriguez, of the Society of Jesus, was once
standing before an image of Mary; and there
burning with love for the most holy Virgin,
broke forth into these words: "My most amiable
mother, I know that thou lovest me, but thou
dost not love me so much as I love thee." Then
Mary, as if wounded in her love, spoke to him
from that image and said: "What dost thou
say what dost thou say, oh Alphonso? Oh,
how much greater is the love I bear thee than
the love thou bearest me! Know that the dis
tance from heaven to earth is not so great as
from my love to thine."

With how much reason, then, did St. Bona-
venture exclaim: Blessed are those whose lot it

is to be faithful servants and lovers of this mosl
loving mother!* For this most grateful queen
is never surpassed in love by her devoted ser-
vants.f Mary, in this respect, imitating our lov
ing Redeemer Jesus Christ, makes by her favors
a twofold return to him who loves her. I will
exclaim, then, with the enamored St. Anselm:
May my heart languish, may my soul melt with
your never-failing love.J May my heart always
burn and my soul be consumed with love for
you, oh Jesus, my beloved Saviour, oh my dear
mother Mary. Grant then, oh Jesus and Mary,
since without your grace I cannot love you,
grant to my soul, not through my merits, but
through yours, that I may love you as you
deserve. Oh, God! the lover of men, thou hast
died for thy enemies, and canst thou deny to him
who asks it, the grace of loving thee and thy
mother?

EXAMPLE.

It is narrated by Father Auriemma,] that a.
poor shepherdess loved Mary so much that all
her delight was to go to a little chapel of our

Jady, on a mountain, and there in solitude,
while her sheep were feeding, to converse with
her beloved mother and pay her devotion to her.
When she saw that the figure of Mary, in relief,
was unadorned, she began, by the poor labor of
her hands, to make a drapery for it. Having
gathered one day some flowers in the fields, she
wove them into a garland, and then ascending
the altar of that little chapel, placed it on the
head of the figure, saying: "Oh, my mother, I
would that I could place on thy head a crown
of gold and gems; but as I am poor, receive from
me this poor crown of flowers, and accept it as
a token of the love I bear thee." Thus this de
vout maiden always endeavored to serve and
honor her beloved Lady. But let us see how
our good mother, on the other hand, rewarded
the visits and the affection of her child. She
fell ill, and was near her end. It happened that
two religious passing that way, weary with travel
ling, stopped to rest under a tree; one fell asleep
and the other watched, but both had the same
vision. They saw a company of beautiful vir
gins, and among them there was one who, in
loveliness and majesty, surpassed the rest. One
of the brothers addressed her, and said: "Lady,
who art thou? and where art thou going?" "I
am the mother of God," she replied, "and I am
going to the neighboring village, with these
holy virgins, to visit a dying shepherdess, who
has many times visited me." She spoke thus
^Uappeared. These two good servants of

66 GLORIES OF MARY.

God proposed to each other to go and visit hei
also. They went towards the place where the
dying maiden lived, entered a small cottage, and
there found her lying upon a little straw. They
saluted her, and she said to them: "Brothers,
ask of God that he may permit you to see the
company that surrounds me." They were quick
ly on their knees, and saw Mary, with a crown
in her hand by the side of the dying girl, con
soling her. Then those holy virgins began to
sing, and with that sweet music the blessed soul
was released from the body. Mary crowned
her, and took her soul with her to paradise.

PRAYER.

Oh Lady, Ravisher of hearts I I would ex
claim with St. Boriaventure; who, with the love
and favor thou dost bestow upon thy servants,
dost ravish their hearts; take my miserable heart
also, which desires so earnestly to love thee.
Thou, oh my mother, with thy beauty hast en
amored a God, and hast drawn him from heaven
into thy bosom, and shall I live without loving
thee? No. I will say to thee with thy loving
child John Berchmans: "I will never rest until I
have attained a tender love for my mother
Mary."* No, I will not rest until I am certain
of having obtained a love a constant and ten
der love for thee, my mother, who hast loved me
with so much tenderness even when I was so un-

* Nnnqnam qulescam, donee habuero tenerum amorem erga matraa
Mariam.

GLORIES OF MARY. 67

grateful towards thee. And where should I now
be if thou, oh Mary, hadst not loved me, and ob
tained so many favors for me? If then thou
hast loved me so much when I did not love thee,
how much more may I confide in thy goodness,
now that I love thee? I love thee, oh my
mother, and would wish for a heart capable of
loving thee, for all those unhappy beings who
do not love thee. Would that my tongue could
praise thee with the power of a thousand tongues,
in order to make known thy greatness, thy holi
ness, thy mercy, and thy love, with which thou
lovest those who love thee. If I had riches, I
would employ them all for thy honor; if I had
subjects, I would make them ail thy lovers; for
thee and for thy glory I would give my life, if
it were required. I love thee, oh my mother, but
at the same time I fear that thou dost not love
me, for I have heard that love makes lovers
like those they love.* If then I find myself so
unlike to thee, it is a proof that I do not love
thee. Thou so pure, I so unclean; thou so hum
ble, I so proud; thou so holy, I so
sinful. But this, oh Mary, is to be thy work;
since thou lovest me, make me like unto thyself.
Thou hast the power to change the heart; take
then mine and change it. Let the world see what
thou canst do for those who love thee. Make
me holy make me worthy of thy Son. Thus
I hope; thus may it be.

* Amor ant similes tevnit . ant f acit, Aristot

68 GLORIES OF MARY.

SECTION IV.

MAKY IS ALSO MOTHER OF PENITENT SINNERS.

MARY assured St. Bridget tbat she was mother
not only of the just and innocent, but also of
sinners, provided they wish to amend.* When
a sinner becomes penitent, and throws himself
at her feet, he finds this good mother of mercy
more ready to embrace and aid him than any
earthly mother could be. This St. Gregory
wrote to the princess Matilda: Desire to cease
from sin, and I confidently promise you you will
find Mary more prompt than an earthly mother
in thy behalf."f But whoever aspires to be the
son of this great mother, must first leave off sin
ning, and then let him hope to be accepted as
her son. Richard, commenting upon the words,
"Then rose up her children, "J remarks, that first
comes the word rose up, surrexerunt, and then
children, jilii; because he cannot be a son of
Mary who does not first rise from the iniquity
into which he has fallen. For, says St. Peter
Chrysologus, he who does works contrary to those
of Mary, by such conduct denies that he wishes

to be her son.* Mary is humble, and will he be
proud? Mary is pure, and will he be impure?
Mary is full of love, and will he hate his neigh
bor? He proves that he is not, and does not
wish to be the son of this holy mother, when he
so much disgusts her with his life. The sons of
Mary, repeats Richard of St. Laurence, are her
imitators in chastity, humility, meekness, mer-
cy.f And how can he who so much disgusts her
with his life, dare to call himself the son of
Mary? A certain sinner once said to Mary,
"Show thyself a mother;"J but the Virgin an
swered him, "Show thyself a son." Another,
one day, invoked this divine mother, calling her
mother of mercy. But Mary said to him, "When
you sinners wish me to aid you, you call me
mother of mercy, and yet by your sins make me
the mother of misery and grief." "He is cursed
of God that angerethhis mother."|] His mother
that is, Mary, remarks Richard. *f God curses
every one who afflicts this his good mother, by
his bad life or his wilfulness.

I have said wilfulness, for when a sinner,
although he may not have left his sins, makes an
effort to quit them, and seeks the aid of Mary,
this mother will not fail to assist him, and
bring him to the grace of God. This St. Brid-

get once learned from Jesus Christ himself, who,
speaking with his mother, said: "Thou dost aid
those who are striving to rise to God, and dost
leave no soul without thy consolation."* While
the sinner, then, is obstinate, Mary cannot love
him; but if he finds himself enchained by some
passion which makes him a slave of hell, and
will commend himself to the Virgin, and im
plore her with confidence and perseverance to
rescue him from his sin, this good mother will
not fail to extend her powerful hand, she will
loose his chains, and bring him to a state of
safety. It is a heresy, condemned by the sa
cred Council of Trent, to say that all the pray
ers and works of a person in a state of sin are
sins. St. Bernard says that prayer is the mouth
of a sinner, although it is without supernatural
excellence, since it is not accompanied by char
ity, yet is useful and efficient in obtaining a
release from sin; for, as St. Thomas teaches,f the
prayer of the sinner is indeed without merit, but
it serves to obtain the grace of pardon; for the
power of obtaining it is based not upon the
worth of him who prays, but upon the divine
bounty, and upon the merits and promise of
Jesus Christ, who has said, "Every one that
asketh receiveth." J The same may be said of
the prayers offered to the divine mother. If he
who prays, says St. Anselm, does not deserve to

be heard, the merits of Mary, to whom he com
mends himself, will cause him to be heard.*
Hence St. Bernard exhorts every sinner to pray
to Mary, and to feel great confidence in praying
to her; because if he does not deserve
what he demands, yet Mary obtains for him, by
her merits, the graces which she asks of God for
him.f The office of a good mother, says the
same saint, is this: if a mother knew that her two
sons were deadly enemies, and that one was plot
ting against the life of the other, what would
she do but endeavor in every way to pacify
him ? Thus, says the saint, Mary is mother
of Jesus, and mother of man; when she sees any
one by his sin an enemy of Jesus Christ, she can
not endure it, and makes every effort to recon
cile them.J Our most indulgent lady only re-
quires the sinner to commend himself to her,
and have the intention to reform. When she
sees a sinner coming to implore mercy at her
feet, she does not regard the sins with which he
is laden, but the intention with which he comes.
If he comes with a good intention, though he have
committed all the sins in the world, she embraces
him, and this most loving mother condescends
to heal all the wounds of his soul; for she is not

only called by us the mother of mercy, but she
really is such, and shows herself such by the
love and tenderness with which she succors us.
The blessed Virgin herself expressed all this
to St. Bridget, when she said to her, However
great may be a man s sins, when he turns to me,
I am immediately ready to receive him; neither
do I consider bow much he has sinned, but with
what intention he comes; for I do not disdain to
anoint and heal his wounds, because I am call
ed, and truly am, the mother of mercy."*

Mary is the mother of sinners who desire to be
converted, and as a mother she cannot but com
passionate them, and it even seems that she re
gards the woes of her poor children as her own.
When the woman of Chanaan implored Jesus
Christ to liberate her daughter from the demon
which tormented her, she said: "Have mercy on
me, oh Lord, thou son of David; my daughter
is grievously troubled by a devil."f But as
the daughter, not the mother, was tormented
by the devil, it would seem that she should have
said, "Oh Lord, have mercy on my daughter,"
not "have mercy upon me ;" but no, she said/ Have
mercy upon me,"Jand with reason, for all the mis
eries of children are felt as their own by their

mothers. Exactly thus Mary prays God, says
Richard of St. Laurence, when she commends
to him a sinner who has recommended himself
to her^ "Have mercy upon me."* It is as if she
said to him, My Lord, this poor creature, who
is in sin, is my child; have pity on him, not so
much on him as on me who am his mother. Oh,
would to God that all sinners would have re
course to this sweet mother, for all would cer
tainly be pardoned by God. Oh Mary, exclaims
St. Bouaventure, in wonder; thou dost embrace,
with maternal affection the sinner who is de
spised by the whole world! neither dost thou
leave him until he is reconciled to his Judgelf
The saint here intends to say that the sinner
who remains in sin is hated and rejected by all
men; even insensible creatures, fire, air, the
earth would punish him, and inflict vengeance
upon him in order to repair the honor of their in
sulted Lord. But if this wretch has recourse to
Mary, does she banish him from her presence?
No: if he comes asking for help, and intending
to amend, she embraces him with the affection of a
mother, and does not leave him until she has rec
onciled him to God by her powerful interces
sion, and re-established him in his grace.

wise woman of Thecua said to David: "My
Lord, I had two sons, and for my misfortune
one has killed the other; so that I have already
lost a child; justice would now take from me my
other and only son; have pity on me a poor
mother, and do not let me be deprived of both
my children." Then David had compassion on
this mother, and liberated the criminal, and re
stored him to her.* It appears that Mary offers
the same petition when God is angry with a sin
ner, who has recourse to her: Oh my God, she
says to him, I had two sons, Jesus and man; man
has killed my Jesus on the cross; thy justice
would now condemn man; my Lord, my Jesus is
dead; have mercy upon me, and if I have lost
one, do not condemn me to lose the other also.
Ah, God assuredly does not condemn those sin
ners who have recourse to Mary, and for whom
ehe prays; since God himself has given these
sinners to Mary for her children. The devout
Lanspergius puts these words into the mouth of
our Lord: I have commended sinners to Mary
as her children. Wherefore she is so watchful
in the performance of her office that she permits
none to be lost who are committed to her care,
especially those who invoke her, and uses all her
power to lead them back to me. And who can
describe, says Blosius, the goodness, the mercy,

the fidelity, and the charity with which this our
mother strives to save us, when we invoke her
aid?* Let us prostrate ourselves, then, says St.
Bernard, before this good mother, let us cling to
her sacred feet, and leave her not until she gives
us her blessing, and accepts us for her children. f
Who could distrust the goodness of this mother?
said St. Bonaventure. Though she should slay
me, I will hope in her; and, confident in my
trust, I would die near her image, and be saved.J
And thus should every sinner say who has re
course to this kind mother: Oh my Lady and
mother, I deserve for my faults that thou
shouldst banish me from thy presence, and
shouldst punish me for my sins; but even if thou
shouldst cast me off and slay me, I shall never
lose confidence in thee and in thy power to save
me. In thee I entirely confide, and if it be my
fate to die before some image of thine, re
commending myself to thy compassion, I should
have a certain hope of my salvation, and of going
to praise thee in heaven, united to all thy ser
vants who called upon thee for aid in death,
and are saved. Let the following example be
read, and let the reader judge if any sinner can
distrust the mercy and love of this good mother,
if he has recourse to her.

It is narrated by Belluacensis that in Ridolio,
a city of England, in the year 1430, there lived
a young nobleman named Ernest, who gave all
his patrimony to the poor, and entered a monas
tery, where he led so holy a life that he was great
ly esteemed by his superiors, particularly for his
special devotion to the most holy Virgin. It
happened that a pestilence prevailed in that city
and the citizens had recourse to that monastery
to ask the prayers of the monks. The abbot or
dered Ernest to go and pray before the altar of
Mary, and not to quit it until she had given him
an answer. The youth remained there three
days, and received from Mary, in answer, some
prayers, which were to be said. They were
said, and the plague ceased. It happened after
wards that this youth became less ardent in his
devotion to Mary; the devil assailed him with
many temptations, especially to impurity, and
to a desire to flee from the monastery; and hav
ing neglected to recommend himself to Mary, he
resolved to take flight by casting himself from
the wall of the monastery; but passing before an
image of the Virgin which stood in the corridor,
the mother of God spoke to him, and said: "My
son, why do you leave me?" Ernest was over
whelmed with surprise, and, filled with com
punction, fell on the earth, saying: "My Lady,
behold, I have no power to resist, why do you
not aid me?" and the Madonna replied: "Why

GLORIES OP MARY. 77

have you not invoked me? If you had sought
my protection, you would not have been reduced
to this; from this day commend yourself to me,
and have confidence." Ernest returned to his
cell ; but the temptations were renewed, yet he
neglected to call upon Mary for assistance. He
finally fled from the monastery, and leading a
bad life, he went on from one sin to another, till
he became an assassin. He rented an inn, where
in the night he murdered unfortunate travellers
and stripped them of all they had. Pne night,
among others, he killed the cousin of the gov
ernor of the place, who, after examination and
trial, condemned him to the gallows. But during
the examination, a young traveller arrived at the
inn, and the host, as usual, laid his plans and
entered his chamber to assassinate him: but on
approaching the bed, he finds the young man gone
and a Christ on the cross, covered with wounds,
in his place. Our Lord, looking compassionately
at him, said: "Is it not enough that I have died
once for thee? Dost thou wish to slay me again?
Bo it, then; lift thy hand and kill me!" Then
the poor Ernest, covered with confusion, began
to weep, and exclaimed: "Oh Lord, behold me
ready to return to thee, who hast shown me so
much mercy." He immediately left the inn to
go back to the monastery and do penance; but
the officers of justice overtook him on the way,
he was carried before the judge, and in his pres
ence confessed all the murders he had com
mitted. He was at once condemned to death,

78 GLORIES OF MARY.

without even being allowed time for confes
sion. He commended himself to Mary. He
was hung upon the gallows, but the Virgin pre
vented his death. She herself released him, and
said to him: "Return to the monastery; do pen
ance; and when you shall see in my hand a pa
per containing the pardon of thy sins, then pre
pare to die. Ernest returned, and having relat
ed all to the abbot, did great penance. After
many years, he saw in the hand of Mary the
paper containing his pardon; he then prepared
for his last end, and died a holy death.

PRAYER.

Oh Mary, sovereign queen, and worthy mother
of my God, most holy Mary! Finding myself
so vile, so laden with sin, I dare not approach
thee and call thee mother. But I cannot let my
miseries deprive me of the consolation and con
fidence I feel in calling thee mother. I know
that I deserve to be rejected by thee, but I pray
thee to consider what thy son Jesus has done and
suffered for me; and then cast me from thee if
thou canst. I am a poor sinner, who, more than
others, have despised the divine Majesty; but the
evil is already done. To thee I have recourse:
thou canst help me; oh, my mother, help me.
Do not say that thou canst not aid me, for I
know that thou art omnipotent, and dost obtain
whatever thou desireth from thy God. If then
fthou eayest that thou canst not help me, at least

GLORIES OF MARY. 79

tell me to whom I must have recourse for succoi
in my deep distress. With St. Anselra, 1 will say
to thee, and to thy Son : Have pity on me, oh thou,
my Redeemer, and pardon me, thou my mother,
and recommend me to pardon; or teach me to
whom I may have recourse, who is more com
passionate than you, and in whom I may have
more confidence. No, neither in heaven nor on
earth can I find one who has more compassion
for the miserable, or who can aid me more than
you. Thou, oh Jesus, art my father, and thou,
oh Mary, art my mother. You love those who
are the most wretched, and you seek to save
them. I am worthy of hell, and of all beings
the most miserable; you need not to seek me,
neither do I ask you to seek me; I present my
self to you with a sure hope that I shall not be
abandoned by you. Behold me at your feet;
my Jesus, pardon me; my Mary, help me.

SO GLORIES OF MARY.

CHAPTER II.

VITA, DULCEDO.
Our life, our sweetness.

SECTION I.

MARY IS OUR LIFE, BECAUSE SHE OBTAINS FOR T7i
THE PARDON OF OUR SINS.

Ix order to understand rightly the reason why
the holy Church calls Mary our life, we must
consider that as the soul gives life to the body,
BO divine grace gives life to the soul; for a soul
without grace, though nominally alive, in truth is
dead, as we find in the Apocalypse: "Thou hast
the name of being alive, and thou art dead. "*
As Mary, then, obtains for sinners, by her inter
cession, the gift of grace, she restores them to
life. The holy Church applies to her the fol
lowing words of Proverbs: "They that in the
morning early watch for me, shall find me."f
They shall find me, or, according to the Septua-
gint, "they shall find grace. "J Hence, to have
recourse to Mary is to find the grace of God; for,
as immediately follows: "He who finds me shall

find life, and shall receive from God eternal sal
vation."* Listen, as St. Bonaventure exclaims
here upon these words, listen, all ye who desire
the kingdom of God ; honor the Virgin Mary,
and ye shall have life and eternal salvation.f

St. Bernardine of Sienna says, that God did
not destroy man after his fall, because of the pe
culiar love that he bore his future child Mary.
And the saint adds, that he doubts not all the
mercy and pardon which sinners receive under
the Old Law, was granted them by God solely
for the sake of this blessed Virgin. J

Therefore St. Bernard exhorts us, if we have
been so unfortunate as to lose divine grace, to
strive to recover it, but to strive through Mary;
for if we have lost it, she has found it: and
hence she is called by this saint, "The finder of
grace. "|| This the angel Gabriel expressed for
our consolation, when he said to the Virgin, "Fear
not, Mary, for thou hast found grace."!" But
if Mary had never been without grace, how could
the angel say to her that she had found it? A
thing is said to be found when it has been lost. The
Virgin was always with God and with grace; she
was even full of grace, as the Archangel himself

announced when he saluted her, "Hail! full of
grace, the Lord is with thee."* If, then, Mary
did not find grace for herself, for whom did she
find it? Cardinal Hugo answers, when comment
ing upon the above passage, that she found it for
sinners who had lost it. Let sinners, then, says
the devout writer, who have lost grace, flee to
Mary; with her they will certainly find it; and
let them say: Oh Lady, what is lost must be re-
Btored to him who has lost it; this grace which
thou hast found is not thine, thou hast never lost
it; it is ours, for we have lost it, and to us thou
shouldst restore it.f In connection with which,
Richard of St. Laurence remarks: If then we de
sire to find the grace of God, let us go to Mary,
who has found it, and always finds it.J And
since she ever has been, and ever will be, dear to
God, if we have recourse to her, we certainly
shall find it. She says, in the holy Canticles,
that God has placed her in the world to be our
defence, and therefore she is ordained to be the
mediatrix of peace between the sinner and God.
"I am become in his presence as one finding
peace. "* By which words St. Bernard gives
encouragement to the sinner, and says: Go to

this mother of mercy, and show her the wounds
which thy sins have inflicted upon thy soul.
Then she will certainly pray her Son that he
may pardon thee by the milk with which she
has nourished him, and the Son who loves her so
much will certainly hear her.* So, too, the holy
Churchteaches us to pray the Lord to grant us the
powerful intercession of Mary, that we may arise
from our sins, in the following prayer: "Grant
us, oh merciful God ! strength against all
our weakness; that we who celebrate the memory
of the holy mother of God, may, by the help of her
intercession, arise again from our iniquities."!

Justly, then, does St. Lawrence Justinian call
herthehope of evil-doers, "spes delinquentium,"
since she alone can obtain their pardon from God.
St. Bernard rightly names her the ladder of sin
ners, "Peccatorum scala;" since she, this com*
passionate queen, offers her hand to poor fallen
mortals, leads them from the precipice of sin, and
helps them to ascend to God. St. Augustine
rightly calls her the only hope of us sinners,
since by her means alone we hope for the re
mission of all our sins. J And St. John Chrysos-
tom reoeats the same thing, namely, that sinners

receive pardon only through the intercession of
Mary.* Whence the saints in the name of all
sinners thus salutes her: Hail! mother of God
and ours; Heaven where God dwells; Throne
from which the Lord dispenses all graces; al
ways pray to Jesus for us, that by thy prayers
we may obtain pardon in the day of account, and
the glory of the blessed in heaven. f Finally,
Mary is rightly called aurora: "Who is she that
cometh forth as the morning rising? *| Because,
as Pope Innocent says, aurora is the end of
night, and the beginning of day, well is the
Virgin Mary, who is the end of vices and the
beginning of virtues, designated as aurora.
And the same effect which the birth of Mary
produced in the world, devotion to her produces
in the soul; she puts an end to the night of sin,
and leads the soul into the way of virtue. Hence,
St. Germanus says: Oh mother of God, thy pro
tection is immortal ! thy intercession is life.J
And in his sermon on the Zone of the Virgin *$
the saint says that the name of Mary, to him

who pronounces it with affection, is either the
sign of life, or that soon he will have life.

Mary sang: "For behold, from henceforth all
nations shall call me blessed."* On this account,
says St. Bernard, all nations shall call thee bless
ed, because all thy servants by thy means shall
obtain the life of grace and eternal glory, f "In
thee sinners find pardon, and the just per
severance, and afterwards life eternal." J Do
not despair, as the devout Bernardine de Bustis
says, oh sinners, although you have committed
all possible sin, but confidently have recourse to
this Lady, for you will find her hands full of mer
cies. Then she adds: Mary is more desirous to
bestow favors upon you than you are to receive
them.

By St. Andrew of Crete, Mary is called "The
security of divine pardon. "|| By this is meant,
that when sinners have recourse to Mary that they
may be reconciled to God, God assures them of
pardon, and gives them the assurance by also giv
ing them the pledge of it. And this pledge is
Mary, whom he has given us for our advocate,

by whose intercession, in virtue of the merits of
Jesus Christ, God pardons all sinners who place
themselves under her protection. It was reveal
ed to St. Bridget by an angel, that the holy proph
ets were full of joy when they learned that
God, by the humility and purity of Mary, would
become reconciled to sinners, and receive into
his favor those who had provoked his wrath.*

No sinner need ever fear that he shall be re
jected by Mary, if he has recourse to her mercy.
No, for she is mother of mercy; and as such,
desires to save the most miserable. Mary is that
happy ark in which he who takes refuge will
never suffer the shipwreck of eternal ruin ; "area
in qua naufragium evadimus." Even the brutes
were saved in the time of the deluge in the ark
of Noe; so, under the mantle of Mary, even sin
ners are saved. St. Gertrude one day saw Mary
with her mantle extended, beneath which many
wild beasts, lions, bears, and tigers had shelter
ed themselves; and Mary not only did not cast
them from her, but received them with pity and
caressed them. And by this the saint under
stood, that the vilest sinners, when they flee to
Mary, are not cast out, but welcomed and saved
from eternal death. Let us enter, then, into
this ark, and seek refuge under the mantle of
Mary; for she certainly will not reject us, and
will surely save us.

It is narrated by Father Bevms,* of a very
sinful person named Helen, that having gone to
church, she accidentally heard a sermon on the
rosary. As she went out she bought one but
carried it hidden, so that it should not be seen.
Afterwards, she began to recite it; and although
she recited it without devotion, the most holy
Virgin infused into her heart such consolation
and sweetness in it, that she could not cease re
peating it. And by this she was inspired with
such a horror of her evil life, that she could find
no peace, and was forced, as it were, to go to con
fession. She confessed with so much contrition,
that the confessor was amazed. Having finished
her confession, she went immediately before an
altar of the blessed Virgin, to thank her advocate;
she recited her rosary, and the divine mother
spoke to her from her image, and said; "Helen,
you have too long offended God and me; hence
forth change your life, arid I will bestow upon
you many of my favors." The poor sinner in
confusion, answered: "Ah, most holy Virgin, it
is true that hitherto I have been very sinful, but
thou, who art all-powerful, assist me; I give my
self to thee, and will pass the remainder of my
life in doing penance for my sins." Assisted by
Mary, Helen bestowed all her goods upon the
poor, and commenced a rigorous penance. She
was tormented by dreadful temptations, but she

88 GLORIES OP MARY.

continued to recommend herself to the mother
of God; and always, with her aid, came off vic
torious. She was favored also with many super
natural graces, as visions, revelations, and proph
ecies. At last, before her death, of which she
had been warned a few days previously by Mary,
the Virgin herself came with her Son to visit her;
and in death, the soul of this sinner was seen, in
the form of a beautiful dove, ascending to heaven.

PRAYER.

Behold, oh mother of my God, Mary, my
only hope, behold at thy feet a miserable sinner,
who implores thy mercy. Thou art proclaimed
and called by the whole Church, and by all the
faithful, the refuge of sinners; thou then art my
refuge; it is thine to save me. Thou knowest
how much thy Son desires our salvation.* Thou,
too, knowest what Jesus Christ suffered to save
me. I offer to thee, oh my mother, the suffer
ings of Jesus; the cold which he endured in the
stable, the steps of his long journey into Egypt,
his toils, his sweat, the blood that he shed, the
torments which caused his death before thy eyes
upon the cross; show thy love for this Son, whilst
I, for the love of him, beg thee to aid me. Ex
tend thy hand to a fallen creature, who asks pity
of thee. If I were a saint, I would not ask for
mercy; but because I am a sinner, I have recourse

to thee, who art the mother of mercies. I know
that thy compassionate heart finds consolation in
succoring the wretched, when thou canst aid
them, and dost not find them obstinate in their
sins. Console, then, to-day thy own compassion
ate heart, and console me; for thou hast a chance
to save me, a poor wretch condemned to hell;
and thou canst aid me, for I will not be obsti
nate. I place myself in thy hands; tell me what
I must do, and obtain for me strength to do it,
and I will do all I can to return to a state of
grace. I take refuge beneath thy mantle. Jesus
Christ wishes me to have recourse to thee, that,
for thy glory and his, since thou art his mother,
not only his blood, but also thy prayers, may
aid me to obtain salvation. He sends me to thee
that thou mayest assist me. Oh Mary, I hasten
to thee, and in thee I trust. Thou dost pray for
so many others, pray, and say also one word for
me. Say to God, that thou desirest my salva
tion, and God certainly will save me. Tell him
that I am thine; this is all I ask from thee.

SECTION II.

MABY IS AGAIN OUR LIFE, BECAUSE SHE OBTAINS FOB

US PERSEVERANCE.

FINAL perseverance is a divine gift so great,
that, as the holy Council of Trent has declared,
it is a wholly gratuitous gift and one that can
not be merited by us. But, as St. Augustine
teaches us, all those obtain perseverance from

90 GLORIES OF MARY.

God who ask it of him; and as Father Suarez
says, they infallibly obtain it if they are dili
gent to the end of life in praying for it; because,
as Cardinal Bellarmine writes: This persever
ance is daily to be sought, that it may be daily
obtained.* Now, if it is true, which I consider
certain, according to the present very general
opinion, as I shall presently demonstrate in
chap. 5th if it is true that all the graces which
are bestowed on us by God pass through the
hands of Mary, it must also be true that only
through Mary can we hope for and obtain this
great gift of perseverance. And we certainly
shall obtain it, if, with confidence, we always
ask it of Mary. She herself promises this grace
to all those who serve her faitlif ully in this life.
"They that work by me shall not sin; they that
explain me shall have life everlasting:" f which
words the holy Church puts into the mouth of
Mary on the Feast of her Conception.

In order that we may be preserved in the life
of divine grace, spiritual strength is necessary
to resist all the enemies of our salvation. ISTow,
this strength can only be obtained by means
of Mary: Mine is this strength, says Mary:
"Mea est fortitude." God has intrusted this
gift to my hand, that I may bestow it on my
devoted servants. "By me kings reign:" "Per

me rege regnant."J By me my servants reign, and
rule their senses and their passions, and thus
make themselves worthy of reigning eternally
in heaven. Oh, what strength have the ser
vants of this great Lady to conquer all the temp
tations of hell! Mary is that tower spoken,
of in the holy Canticles: "Thy neck is as the
tower of David, which is bailt with bulwarks
a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armor
of valiant men."* She is like a strong tower of
defence for her lovers, who take refuge with
her in the day of battle; in her all her devoted
servants find shields and weapons of every kind
to defend themselves against the powers of
hell.

For this reason, the most holy Virgin is call
ed a plane-tree: "As a plane-tree by the water
in the streets was I exalted." f This passage is
explained by Cardinal Hugo, who tells us that
the plane-tree has leaves like shields.J And by
this is explained the defence that Mary affords
those who take refuge with her. The blessed
Amadeus gives another explanation, and saya
that she is called a plane-tree, because, as the
plane-tree, with its shade, protects the traveller
from the heat of the sun and from the rain, so,

under the mantle of Mary, men find shelter front
the heat of their passions and the fury of temp*
tations.*

Unfortunate are those souls who withdraw
from this shelter, neglect their devotion to Mary,
and tail to recommend themselves to her in trial.
If the sun should no more rise upon the world,
says St. Bernard, what would the world become
but a chaos of darkness and horror?f If a soul
loses her devotion to Mary, she will immediate
ly be full of darkness, and that darkness of
which the Holy Ghost says: "Thou hast appoint
ed darkness, and it is night; in it shall the beasts
of the woods go about."J When the divine
light does not shine in a soul it is night, and it
will become a den of all sins and demons. Woe
to those, as St. Anselm says, who turn away
from the light of this sun; that is, who neglect
devotion to Mary. St. Francis Borgia, with
reason, feared for the perseverance of those in
whom he did not find a special devotion to the
blessed Virgin. When once he asked some nov
ices to what saint they had the most devotion,
and found that some of them were not especial
ly devoted to Mary, he M T arned the master to
watch more carefully these unfortunate persons;

and it happened that they all lost their vocation
and quitted religion.

St. Germanus justly called the most holy Vir
gin the breath of Christians; because, as the body
cannot live without breathing, so the soul can
not live without having recourse and commend
ing itself to Mary, through whose means the life
of divine grace is obtained for us and preserved
in us.* As respiration is not only the sign, but
also the cause of life, so is the name of Mary,
when it is spoken by the servants of God, not
only proves that they are living, but procures
and maintains this life, and obtains for them every
aid. The blessed Alan us, when once assailed by
a strong temptation, was on the point of being
lost because he omitted to recommend himself to
Mary; but the blessed Virgin appeared to him,
and, to warn him against such neglect in future,
gave him a blow on the ear, and said to him:
"If thou hadst commended thyself to me, thou
wouldst not have been exposed to this peril. r/

On the other hand: "Blessed is the man," says
Mary, that heareth me, and that watcheth daily
at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my
doors."J Mary will certainly be ready to obtain
light and strength for those faithful servants,

that they may abandon their vices and walk in
the paths of virtue. Hence is she, as Innocent
III. beautifully expresses it: The moon by night,
the dawn of the morning, and the sun toy
day.* The moon, to him who is groping in the
night of sin, to give him light to see his wretch-
ed state of condemnation; the dawn, the fore
runner of the snn, to him who is enlightened,
that he may come forth from sin and return to
divine grace; and the sun, to him who is in grace,
that he may not again fall into any precipice.

Theologians apply to Mary these words of
Ecclesiasticus: "Her bands are a healthful bind
ing."! Wherefore are they called bands, asks St.
Lawrence Justinian, unless because she binds her
servants, that they may not wander in forbid
den fields?J St. Bonaventure explains in a sim
ilar manner the words of the office of Mary:
My abode is in the full assembly of saints."
He says that Mary is not only established in the
fulness of the saints, but that she also upholds
the saints, that they may not fall away; she sus
tains their virtue that it may not waver, and pre
vents the demons from doing them harm.||

with double garments." * Cornelius a Lapide
thus describes this double garment: It is a
double garment, because she clothes her ser
vants with the virtues of her Son, as well as
with her own; f and, thus clothed, they will
preserve holy perseverance. For this reason,
St. Philip Neri always admonished his penitents
by saying to them: My children, if you desire per
severance, be devout to Mary. The venerable
brother John Berchmans, of the Company of
Jesus, also said: He who loves Mary, shall have
perseverance. The reflection which Rupert the
abbot makes upon the prodigal son is very beauti
ful. If the mother of this prodigal son had been
living, he would either never have left his father s
house or would have returned much sooner.J
And by this lie wished to say, that he who is a
child of Mary, either never departs from God, or
if for his misfortune he departs, by means of
Mary he quickly returns.

Oh, if all men loved this most kind and loving
Lady, and in temptations always and immedi
ately had recourse to her, who would fall? Who
would be lost ? He falls and is lost who does
not flee to Mary. St. Lawrence Justinian ap
plies to Mary these words of Ecclesiasticus : "I
have walked in the waves of the sea;" 8 and

makes her to say: I walked with my servants in
the midst of the tempests to which they are ex
posed, to assist them, and prevent them from
falling into the precipice of sin.*

Father Bernardine de Bustis relates that a
hawk darted upon a bird which had been taught
to say Ave Maria; the bird said Ave Maria, and
the hawk fell dead. By this our Lord wished
to show us, that if an irrational bird was saved
from destruction by invoking Mary, how much
more surely will he be prevented from falling
into the power of evil spirits, who is mindful
to invoke Mary in his temptations. Nothing
remains to be done, says St. Thomas of Villa-
nova, when the devil comes to tempt us, but, like
the chickens when the kite appears, to run quick
ly under the shelter of the wings of our mother.
Let us, then, at the approach of the temptations
which assail us, without stopping to parley with
them, place ourselves at once under the protec
tion of Mary.f And then, the saint goes on to
say, our Lady and mother must defend us; for,
after God, we have no refuge but thee, who art
our only hope, and the only protectress in whom
we may confide. J

Bernard;* Oh man, whoever thou art, thou know-
cst that in this miserable life thou art rather toss
ing on the tempestuous waves, among dangers
and tempests, than walking upon the earth; if
thou wouldst not sink, keep thy eye fixed on
this star, namely, Mary. Look at the star, in
voke Mary. When in danger of sinning, when
tormented by temptations, when doubts disturb
thee, remember that Mary can aid thee, and in
stantly call upon her. May her powerful name
never depart from the confidence of thy heart,
nor from the invocation of thy lips. If thou
wilt follow Mary, thou shalt never wander from
the path of safety. Commend thyself always to
her, and thou shalt not despair. If she upholds
thee, thou shalt not fall. If she protects thee,
thou need not fear ruin. If she guides thee,
thou shalt be saved without difficulty. In a word,
if Mary undertakes to defend thee, thou shalt cer
tainly arrive at the kingdom of the blessed.
Thus do, and thou shalt live.

EXAMPLE.

In the celebrated history of St. Mary of Egypt,
which we find in the first volume of the Lives of

the Fathers, we read that, at twelve years of age
she fled from her parents, and went to Alexan
dria, where she led an infamous life, and became
the scandal of the city. After sixteen years
spent in sin,she wandered off to Jerusalem; when ,
on the festival of the Holy Cross, she was led to
enter the church, more from curiosity than de
votion. On the threshold she was thrust back,
as if by some invisible power; she attempted a
second time to enter, and again was repelled,
and a third and a fourth time the same thing
happened. The wretched creature withdrew
then into a corner of the portico, and there she
was interiorly enlightened, and saw that God had
refused her entrance into the church on account
of her wicked life. By chance she raised her
eyes, and saw a picture of Mary which was paint
ed in the vestibule. She turned to it, weeping,
and said: "Oh mother of God, have pity on this
poor sinner! I know that, on account of my sins,
I do not deserve that thou shouldst regard me;
but thou art the refuge of sinners: for the love
of Jesus, thy Son, help me. Obtain for me that
I may enter the church, for I desire to change
my life, and go and do penance wherever thou
ehalt direct." Then she heard an interior voice,
as if the blessed Virgin answered her: "Come,
since thou hast invoked me, and wishest to change
thy life, enter the church, for the door will no
longer be closed against thee." The sinner en
tered, adored the cross, and wept. She returned
to the picture: f Oh Lady," she said, "I am ready;

GLORIES OP MAST. 99

where shall I retire to do penance?" " Go," said
the Virgin, " beyond the Jordan, and thou wilt
find the place of thy repose." She made her con
fession, received holy communion, passed the
river, reached the desert, and understood
that there was her place of penance. During the
first seventeen years that she lived in the desert,
the evil spirits fiercely assailed her, to make her
fall again. What did she then do? She recom
mended herself to Mary, and Mary obtained for
her strength to resist for seventeen years, after
which the conflict ceased. Finally, after fifty-
seven years spent in the desert, in the eighty-
seventh of her age, through Divine Providence,
she was found by the abbot St. Zosimus. To
him she related the story of her whole life, and
begged him to return there the following year,
and bring her holy communion. The holy abbot
returned, and gave her communion. Then she
implored him again to do the same thing. Ha
returned the second time, and found her dead,
her body surrounded with light, and at her head
these words written in the sand: "Bury in this
place the body of me, a miserable sinner, and
pray God for me." A lion came and dug her
grave, the abbot buried her, and, returning to
the monastery, he related the wonders of divine
mercy towards this happy penitent.

PRATER.

Oh mother of mercy! holy Virgin! behold at

100 GLORIES OF

thy feet the traitor, who, returning ingratitude for
the favors received through thee from God has
betrayed thee and God. But, oh my Lady!
know that my misery does not destroy, but in
creases my confidence in thee, because I see that
my misery increases thy compassion for me.
Show, oh Mary! that thou art the same to me
as thou art to all those who invoke thee, full of
grace and mercy. It is enough for me that
thou regardest me with compassion). If in thy
heart thou hast pity for me, thou wilt not cease
to protect me; and if thou dost protect me,
what should I fear? No, I fear nothing; I fear
not my sins, for thou canst remedy their evil
consequences; nor the demons, for thou art
more powerful than hell; nor thy Son who is
justly angry with me, for at one word of thine
he will be appeased. I only fear that through
negligence I may fail to implore thy protection
in my temptations, and that this may cause my
ruin. But I promise thee to-day, I will always
have recourse to thee. Help me to keep this
resolution. Behold the opportunity thou hast
of satisfying thy desire to relieve so miserable a
reature as I am.

Oh mother of God, I have great confidence in
thee. From thee I expect the grace to do just
penance for my sins, and fiom thee I hope the
strength never more to fall back into them. If
I am sick, thou canst heal me, oh heavenly phy
sician. If my sins have made nre weak, thy hlp
an make me strong. Oh Mary, I hope every

GLORIES OP MARY. 101

thing from thee, for tliou hast all power with
God c

SECTION III.

Dulcedo: Sweetness.
MARY RENDERS DEATH SWEET TO HER SERVANTS.

"HE that is a friend loveth at all times; and a
brother is proved in distress."* True friends
and relatives are not known in times of prosper
ity, but in the season of adversity and misery.
Worldly friends do not desert their friend when
he if in prosperity; but if any misfortune over
takes him, particularly in the hour of death,
immediately his friends abandon him. Not so
does Mary desert her devoted servants. In
their distresses, and especially at the trying
hour of death, when our sufferings are the great
est that can be endured on earth, she our good
Lady and mother cannot abandon her faithful
servants; and as she is our life in the time of
our exile, so is she also our sweetness in the hour
of death, by obtaining for us that it may be
sweet and blessed. For since that great day in
which it was the lot and the grief of Mary to be
present at the death of Jesus, her Son, who
was the head of the elect, she obtained the grace
of aiding at death all the elect. Hence the holy

Church requires us to pray the blessed Virgin,
that she would especially aid us in the hour of
our death: "Pray for us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death."*

The sufferings of the dying are very great,
on account of their remorse for sins committed,
their dread of approaching judgment, and the
uncertainly of eternal salvation. At that mo
ment especially, the devil puts forth all his pow
er to gain the soul that is passing into eternity;
knowing that the time is short in which he jray
win her, and that if he loses her, he has lost
her forever. "The devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a
short time."f And therefore the devil, who has
always tempted her in life, will not be satisfied
to tempt her alone in death, but calls compan
ions to his aid: "Their houses shall be filled
with serpents. "J When any one is at the point
of death, his house is filled with demons, who
unite to accomplish his ruin.

It is related of St. Andrew Avellino, that at
the time of his death, ten thousand devils came
to tempt him; and we read in his life, that at
the time of his agony lie had so fierce a struggle
with hell, that it caused all his good religious
who were present to tremble. They saw the
face of the saint swell from agitation, so that it

became black; they saw all his limbs trembling,
and greatly agitated, rivers of tears flowed from
his eyes, and his head shook violently; all these
were signs of the horrible assault he was suffering
from the powers of hell. All the religious wept
in compassion, redoubled their prayers, and
trembled with fear when they saw that a saint
died thus. Yet they were consoled by seeing
that the saint often turned his eyes, as if seek
ing help, towards a devout image of Mary, for
they remembered that he had often said in life,
that in the hour of his death, Mary must be his
refuge. It finally pleased God to terminate
this struggle by a glorious victory, for the agita
tion of his body ceased, his countenance gained
its natural shape and color, and fixing his eyes
tranquilly on that image, he devoutly bowed his
head to Mary, who, it is believed, then appeared
to him, as if to thank her, and quietly breathed
forth in her arms his blessed soul, with heavenly
peace depicted on his countenance. At the same
time a Capuchin nun, in her agony, turned to
the religious who were with her and said: "Say
an Ave Maria, for a saint has just died."

Ah, how these rebels flee before the presence of
their queen! If, in the hour of death, we have
Mary on our side, what fear can we have of all
the powers of hell? David, in dread of the ag
ony of death, comforted himself with confidence
in the death of his future Redeemer, and in the
intercession of the Virgin mother: "For though
I should walk in the midst of the shadow of

104 GLORIES OF MARY.

death, I fear no evils, for thou art with me; thy
rod and thy staff they have comforted me."*
Cardinal Hugo understands the staff to signify
the tree of the Cross, and the rod the intercession
of Mary, who was the rod foretold by Isaias:
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the root
of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of hia
root."f This divine mother, says St. Peter Da-
mian, is that powerful rod by which the fury o
the infernal enemies is conquered. J Hence St.
Antoninus encourages us, saying: If Mary is for
us, who is against us? Father Manuel Padial,
of the Society of Jesus, being at the point of
death, Mary appeared to him, and said, to com
fort him: "The hour has at length come when
the angels, rejoicing, say to thee, Oh happy la
bors! oh mortifications well recompensed!" At
which words an army of devils was seen taking
flight in despair, crying: "Alas! we have no
power, for she who is without stain defends
him."J In like manner, the devils assailed Father
Jasper Hay wood, when he was dying, with great
temptations against faith; he immediately com
mended himself to the most holy Virgin, and
then was heard to exclaim: "I thank thee, oh
Mary, that thou hast come to my aid."^[

St. Bonaventure says that Mary sends the
archangel Michael, with all the angels, to the
defence of her dying servants, to protect them
from the assaults of evil spirits, and to receive
the souls of all those who have especially and
constantly recommended themselves to her.*

When a man leaves this life, Isaias says that
hell is in uproar, and sends its most terrible de
mons to tempt that soul before it leaves the
body, and then afterwards to accuse it when it
is presented at the tribunal of Jesus Christ to be
judged: "Hell below was in an upr.oar to meet
thee; at thy coming it stirred up the giants for
thee." f But Richard says, that the demons,
when that soul is defended by Mary, will not
even dare to accuse it; knowing that a soul pro
tected by this great mother is never, and will
never, be condemned. J St. Jerome wrote to
the virgin Eustochium, that Mary not only assists
her dear servants in their death, but also comes
to meet them in their passage to the other life,
to encourage them and accompany them to the
divine tribunal, And this agrees with what
the blessed Virgin said to St. Bridget, speaking

of her servants when they are at the point of
death: "Then I, their most loving Lady and
mother, hasten to them in death, that they may
have consolation and comfort."* St. Vincent of
Ferrer adds: The blessed Virgin receives the
souls of the dying. The loving queen receives
their souls under her protection, and she her*
self presents them to the judge her Son, and
thus certainly procures their salvation, f This
happened to Charles, son of St. Bridget, who,
dying in the perilous profession of a soldier,
and far from his mother, the saint feared for his
salvation; but the blessed Virgin revealed to her
that Charles was saved for the love he bore her, in
recompense of which she had assisted him in
death, and had suggested to him the Christian
acts necessary to be made at that moment. The
saint saw at the same time Jesus upon a throne,
and the devil bringing two accusations against
the most holy Virgin: the first, that Mary had
prevented him from tempting Charles at the
moment of death; the second, that Mary herself
had presented his soul to its judge, and thus
had saved without even giving him an opportu
nity to expose the reasons why he claimed it as his
own. She then saw him driven from the pres
ence of the judge, and the soul of Charles taken
to heaven.

"Her bands are a healthful binding; in the
latter end thou shalt find rest in her."* Blessed
art thou, oh brother, if in death thou shalt find
thyself bound by the sweet chains of love for
the mother of God! These chains are chains of
salvation, which will secure to thee eternal sal
vation, and give thee in death that blessed peace
which will be the commencement of thy eternal
peace and rest. Father Binetti, in his book "On
the Perfections of our Lord," relates that having
been present at the death of a devoted servant
of Mary, he heard from him these words before
he breathed his last: "Oh, my Father, if you
knew what happiness I find in having served the
most holy mother of God! I could not describe
to you the joy I feel at this moment."f Father
Suarez, because he was all his life very devoted
to Mary, used to say, that he would willingly ex
change all his knowledge for the merit of one
Hail Mary, and died with so much joy, that he
exclaimed at his last moment, "I never imagined
it would be so sweet to die, non putabam tarn
dulce esse mori."J You too, devout reader, will
doubtless feel the same peace and joy, if at death
you can remember having loved this good mother,
who cannot but be faithful to her children, when
they are faithful to her service, paying her their
offerings of visits, rosaries, and fastings, and

Neither will you be deprived of this consola
tion on account of your sins, if from henceforth
you will be careful to live well, and to serve
this very grateful and gracious Lady. In the
trials and temptations with which the devil will
assail you, that he may throw you into despair,
she will comfort you, and even come herself to
assist you in death. Maryin, brother of St.
Peter Damian, as the saint himself relates, find
ing that he had offended God, went one day be
fore an altar of Mary to dedicate himself to her
service, putting his girdle around his neck in
token of his servitude, and thus said: "My
Lady, mirror of purity, I, a poor sinner, have of
fended God and thee by violating chastity: I have
no other remedy than to offer myself as thy
servant; to thy service I dedicate myself to-day;
receive this rebel, do not despise me." He then
laid on the altar a certain sum of money, prom
ising to pay the same every year as a tribute of
his devotion to Mary. After some time Maryin
died; but before his death he was heard one
morning to say: " Arise, arise, pay homage to
my Lady;" and afterwards: " What a favor is
this, oh queen of heaven, that thou shouldst con
descend to visit this thy poor servant. Bless me,
oh Lady, and permit me not to be lost after thou
hast honored me with thy presence." At thii
moment his brother Peter entered. Maryin re-

GLORIES OP MABY. 109

lated to him the visit of Mary, and how she had
blessed him, lamenting that the persons present
had not arisen at her entrance; and shortly after
quietly passed away to our Lord. Such will
be your death also, oh my reader, if you are
faithful to Mary, even if in your past life you
have offended God. She will give you a sweet
and happy death.

And if then you are greatly alarmed and lose
courage in view of the sins you have committed,
she will come to comfort you as she came to
Adolphus, Count of Alsace, who, having quitted
the world and become a Franciscan, as the chron
icles relate, was very devoted to the mother of
God. His last days arrived, and at the remem
brance of the life he had led in the world, and
the rigor of divine justice, he began to fear
death and doubt of his salvation. Then Mary,
who never sleeps when her faithful servants
are in trouble, accompanied by many saints,
appeared to him, and encouraged him with these
tender words of consolation : "My dear Adolphus,
thou art mine, thou hast given thyself to me,
then why dost thou so greatly fear death?"*
The servant of Mary was consoled by these
words, every fear disappeared, and he died in
great peace and contentment.

Let us, too, although we are sinners, take
courage and have the confidence that Mary will
come to assist us in death, and console us by

* Adolphe mi cariMime, inori cur time*, meus com gitf

110 GLORIES OF MARY.

her presence, if we serve and love her during
the remainder of our life on this earth. Our
queen, speaking one day to St. Matilda, promis
ed that she would be present at the death of all
those devoted children who had faithfully serv
ed her in life.* Oh my God, what a consolation
must it be in that last hour of life, when our lot
for eternity is to be decided, to find close by our
side the queen of heaven, who sustains and com
forts us by promising us her protection! Be
sides the examples already cited of the assistance
afforded by Mary to her faithful servants, they
are innumerable others to be found in various
books. This favor was granted to St. Clare, to
St. Felix, a Capuchin, to the blessed Clara of
Montefalco, to St. Theresa, and St. Peter of Al
cantara. But for our common consolation, I
will mention the few following examples. Fath
er Crasset relatesf that St. Mary of Oignies saw
the blessed Virgin by the pillow of a devout
widow of Villembroe, who was tormented by a
burning fever. The most holy Mary was stand
ing by her side consoling her, and cooling her
with a fan. St. John of God, at death, expected
a visit from Mary, to whom he was greatly devot
ed; but finding she did not come, he was afflict
ed, and perhaps complained a little. But at
length the holy mother appeared to him, and as

if reproaching him for his want of confidence,
said to him these tender words, which should
encourage all the servants of Mary: " John, it
is not in my heart, at this hour, to desert my
children."* As if she had said to him: My
John, of what were you thinking? that I had
abandoned you ? Do you not know that I can
not abandon my devoted children at the hour of
death ? I did not come before, because it was
not yet time ; but now I come ready to take
you, let us go to paradise. And soon after the
saint expired, and flew to heaven to give thanks
eternally to his most loving queen.f

EXAMPLE.

I will now relate another example by way of
conclusion to the subject of which I have been
just speaking, and for the sake of showing how
great is the tenderness of this good mother tow
ards her children when they are dying.

The pastor of a certain place went to assist at
the death-bed of a rich man. He was dying in
a splendid house, and a multitude of relations,
friends, and servants, surrounded his bed. But
among these, the priest saw a number of devils
in the shape of hounds, who waited to seize upon
his soul, and who actually did so; for he died
in sin. At the same time he was sent for by a
poor woman, who was dying, and desired the

"Holy sacraments; not being able to leave the dy
ing rich man, whose soul was so much in need
of his assistance, he sent another priest to her,
who accordingly went, carrying with him the
holy sacrament. He found in the dwelling of
that good woman no servants, no retinue, no
splendid furniture, for she was very poor, and we
may suppose had only a little straw to lie upon.
But what does he see? He sees in that apart
ment a great light, and near the bed of the dying
person was Mary the mother of God, who was con
soling her, and with a cloth was wiping the sweat
from her brow. The priest seeing Mary, had not
the courage to enter, but she made a motion to
him to approach. He entered, Mary pointed to
a seat, that he might sit down and hear the con
fession of her servant. The poor woman then
made her confession, received the holy sacra
ment with much devotion, and at last exptred
happily in the arms of Mary.*

PEAYER.

Oh my sweetest mother, what will be the death
of me, a poor sinner? Even now, when thinking
of that great moment, in which I must die, and
be presented at the divine tribunal, and remem
bering how often, by my wicked consent, I my
self have written my own sentence of condem
nation, I tremble, am confounded, and fear great
ly for my eternal salvation. Oh Mary, my hopei

* Crtoog. Mond. Mat p. 3, d. 38.

CLOBIES OF MAEY. 113

are in the blood of Jesus, and in thy intercession.
Thou art the Queen of heaven ! the Lady of the
universe ! it is sufficient to say that thou art the
mother of God. Thou art great, but thy great
ness does not separate thee from us ; it even
inclines thee to have more compassion on our
miseries. When our earthly friends are raised
to any dignity, they seclude themselves from
those whom they have left in a low estate, and
will not condescend even to look at them. But
it is not so with thy loving and noble heart.
Where thou dost behold the greatest misery,
there thou art most intent on giving relief.
When invoked, thou dost immediately come to
our aid, and even anticipate our supplications ;
thou dost console us in our afflictions, dissipate
all tempests, put down our enemies; in a word,
thou dost never omit an opportunity of doing us
good. Ever blessed be that divine hand which
has united in thee so much majesty and so much
tenderness, so much greatness and so much
love! I always thank our Lord, and congratu
late myself that I can regard thy happiness and
mine, thy fate and mine as one. Oh consoler of
the afflicted, console in his affliction one who re
commends himself to thee. I am tortured with
remorse for my many sins; I am uncertain wheth
er I have repented of them as I ought to have
done; I see how corrupt and imperfect are all my
works. The devil is awaiting my death in order
to accuse me. Divine justice violated must be
satisfied. Oh my mother, what will become of

114 GLORIES OP MARY.

me? If thou dost not aid me, I am lost. Answel
me, wilt thou aid me? Oh merciful Virgin, con
sole me; obtain for me strength to amend, and to
&e faithful to God during what remains to me of
life. And when I shall find myself in the last
agony of death, oh Mary! my hope, do not aban
don me; then more than ever assist me, and save
me from despair at the sight of my sins, of which
the devils will accuse me. Oh Lady, pardon my
boldness; come, then, thyself to console me by
thy presence. Grant me this favor which thou
hast bestowed on so many; I also desire it. If
my boldness is great, greater still is thy goodness,
which seeks the most miserable to console them.
In this, thy goodness, I trust. May it be to thy
eternal glory that thou hast saved from hell a
miserable wretch, and brought him to thy king
dom, where I hope to console myself by being
always at thy feet to thank, bless, and love thee
throughout eternity. Oh Mary, I wait for thee,
do not leave me then disconsolate. Come, come.
Amen, amen.

GLOEIES OF MARY. 116

CHAPTER III.

SPES NOSTRA SALVE.
Hail, our hope.

SECTION I.

MARY IS THE HOPE OP ALL.

MODERN heretics cannot endure that we should
salute Mary in this manner by calling her our
hope. Hail, our hope, spes nostra salve." They
say that God alone is our hope, and that he
who places his hope in a creature is accursed of
God.* Mary, they exclaim, is a creature, and,
as a creature, how can she be our hope ? Thus
say the heretics, but notwithstanding this, the
Church requires all the clergy, and all religious
daily to raise their voices, and in the name of
all the faithful, invoke and call Mary by the
sweet name of our hope, the hope of all: "Hail,
our hope!"

In two ways, says the angelic St. Thomas, can
we place our hope in a person: as the principal
cause, and as the intermediate cause. Those

* Maledictus homo qui confidit in homine. Jer. xvii. 6.

31(5 GLORIES OP MABT-.

who hope for some favor from the king, hope
for it from the king as sovereign, and hope for
it from his minister or favorite as intercessor. If
the favor is granted, it comes in the first place
from the king, but it comes through the medi
um of his favorite; wherefore, he who asks a
favor justly calls that intercessor his hope. The
king of heaven, because he is infinite goodness,
greatly desires to enrich us with his graces; but,
because confidence is necessary on our part, in
order to increase our confidence, he has given
his own mother for our mother and advo
cate, and has given her all power to aid us; and
hence he wishes us to place in her all our hopes
of salvation, and of every blessing. Those who
place all their hope on creatures, without de
pendence upon God, as sinners do, who to ob
tain the friendship and favor of man, are willing
to displease God, are certainly cursed by God,
as Isaias says. But those who hope in Mary, as
mother of God, powerful to obtain for them
graces and life eternal, are blessed, and please
the heart of God, who wishes to see that noble
creature honored, who, more than all men and
angels, loved and honored him in this world.

Hence we justly call the Virgin our hope
hoping, as Cardinal Bellarmine says, to obtain,
by her intercession what we could not obtain by
our prayers alone.* We pray to her, says St.
Anselm, in order that the dignity of the inter*

* D Beat. S3. lib. ft cap, 8.

GLORIES OF MARY. il7

essor may supply our deficiencies.* Therefore,
the saint adds, to supplicate the Virgin with
such hope, is not to distrust the mercy of God,
but to fear our own unworthiness.f

With reason does the Church, then, apply to
Mary the words of Ecclesiasticus, with which he
salutes her: "Mother of holy hope;"J that moth
er who inspires us not with the vain hope of the
miserable and transitory advantages of this life,
but with the holy hope of the immense and eter
nal good of the blessed life to come. St. Eph-
rem thus salutes the divine mother: "Hail, hope
of the soul! hail, secure salvation of Christians!
hail, helper of sinners! hail, defence of the faith
ful, and salvation of the world !" St. Basil
teaches us that, next to God, we have no other
hope than Mary, and for this reason he calls her:
After God our only hope, "Post Deum sola spes
nostra;" and St. Ephrem, reflecting on the order
of Providence in this life, by which God has or
dained (as St. Bernard says, and we shall here
after prove at length) that all those who are saved
must be saved by means of Mary, says to her:
Oh Lady, do not cease to receive and shelter us
under the mantle of thy protection, since, after

God, we have no hope but thee.* St. Thomas
of Villanova says the same thing, calling her our
only refuge, help, and protection.!

St. Bernard assigns the reason for this by say
ing: Behold, oh man, the design of God, a design
arranged for our benefit, that he may be able to
bestow upon us more abundantly his compassion;
for, wishing to redeem the human race, he has
placed the price of our redemption in the hands
of Mary, that she may dispense it at her pleas-
ure.J

God ordered Moses to make a propitiatory of
the purest gold, telling him that from it he
would speak to him: "Thou shalt make a propi
tiatory of the purest gold. Thence will I give
orders, and will speak to thee." J A certain author
explains this propitiatory to be Mary, through
whom the Lord speaks to men, and dispenses to
them pardon, graces, and f avors. And there
fore St. Irenseus says that the divine Word, be
fore incarnating himself in the womb of Mary,
sent the archangel to obtain her consent, because
he would have the world indebted to Mary for

the mystery of the incarnation.* Also the Idiot
remarks, that every blessing, every help, every
grace that men have received or will receive
from God, to the end of the world, has come to
them, and will come to them, through the inter
cession and by means of Mary.f Rightly, then
did the devout Blosius exclaim : Oh Mary, who
art so amiable, and so grateful to him who loves
thee, who will be so stupid and unhappy as not
to love thee! In doubt and perplexity thou dost
enlighten the minds of those who have recourse
to thee in their troubles. Thou art the comfort
of those who trust in thee, in time of dan
ger. Thou dost help those who invoke thee.
Thou art, continues Blosius, next to thy divine
Son, the secure salvation of thy servants. Hail
then, oh hope of the despairing. Hail helper of
the destitute ! Oh Mary, thou art omnipotent,
since thy Son would honor thee by immediately
doing all that thou desirest.|

St. Germanus, recognizing Mary to be the
source of every blessing, and the deliverance
from every evil, thus invokes her: Oh my Lady^
thou alone art m^ help, given me by God ; thou

Justly, then, does St. Antoninus apply toMary
that passage of wisdom: "Xow all good things
came to me together with her." f Since Mary
is the mother of God and the dispenser of all
good, the world may truly say, and especially
those in the world who are devoted to this
queen, that, together with devotion to Mary,
they have obtained every good thing.J
Wherefore the Abbot of Celles said positively:
He who has found Mary finds every good thing.
He finds all graces and all virtues; since she by
her powerful intercession obtains for him in
abundance all that he needs to make him rich
in divine grace. She gives us to know that she
has with her all the riches of God, that is, the
divine mercies, that she may dispense them for

the benefit of those who love her. "With me are
riches and glory, that I may enrich them that
love me."* Hence St. Bonaventure says: "We
should all keep our eyes fixed on the hands of
Mary, that through her we may receive the
blessings we desire, f

Oh! how many of the proud have found hu
mility through devotion to Mary ; how many of
the violent, meekness ; how many blind, the
light ; how many despairing, confidence ; how
many lost, salvation ! And precisely this she
herself predicted when she pronounced in the
house of Elizabeth that sublime canticle : "Be
hold, from henceforth all generations shall call
me blessed. "J Which words St. Bernard re
peats, and says : All nations will call thee bless
ed, for to all nations thou hast given life and
glory ; in thee sinners find pardon, and the just
find perseverance in divine grace. Whence
the devout Lanspergius represents the Lord thus
speaking to the world : Venerate my mother
with especial veneration. Oh men, he says, poor
children of Adam, who live in the midst of so
many enemies and so much misery, strive to

honor with particular affection my mother anfl
yours. I have given her to the world as an ex>
ample of purity, a refuge and asylum -for the
afflicted.* That is, I have given Mary to the
world for your example, that from her you may
learn to live as you ought ; and for your refuge,
that you may have recourse to her, In your
tribulations. This my child, says God, I have
created such that no one can fear her, or be unwill
ing to have recourse to her, for I have created
her with so benign and compassionate a nature,
that she will not despise any who seek her pro
tection, and she will deny no favor to any
who ask it. She spreads the mantle of her com
passion over all, and never permits any one to
go from her feet unconsoled. May the great
goodness of our God, then, be ever blessed, who
has given us this great mother and advocate, so
loving and tender.

Oh ! how tender are the sentiments of confi
dence which filled the heart of the most
loving St. Bonaventure for his dear Redeemer
Jesus, and for our loving intercessor Mary !
Let the Lord chastise me as much as seemeth to
him good, I know that he will not refuse him
self to those who love him and who seek him
with an upright heart. I will embrace him with

my love, and I will not let him go till he has
blessed me, and he will not depart without me.
If I can do nothing else, at least I will hide my
self in his wounds ; there I will remain, and out
of himself he shall not be able to find me.*
Finally, he adds, if my Redeemer, for my sins,
drives me from his feet, I will cast myself at the
feet of his mother Mary, and, prostrate there, I
will not depart until she has obtained my pardon;
for this mother of mercy has never failed to take
pity on misery and console the wretched who
seek her aid ; and therefore, if not from obliga
tion, at least from compassion, she will not fail
to induce her Son to pardon me.f

Look upon us, then, we will conclude with
the words of Euthymius, look upon us, then,
with thine eyes of compassion, oh our most mer
ciful mother, for we are thy servants, and in thee
we have placed all our hope.f

EXAMPLE.

It is related in the Fourth Part of the Treas
ure of the Rosary, miracle eighty-fifth,that a gen
tleman who was most devoted to the divine

mother, had set apart in his palace an oratory
where, before a beautiful statue of Mary, he was
accustomed often to remain praying, not only
by day, but also by night, interrupting his rest
to go and honor his beloved Lady; but his
wife, for he was married, though she was a
very devout person, observing that her husband
in the deepest silence of the night left his bed,
and going from his apartment did not return
for a long time, became jealous, and was suspici
ous of evil; wherefore, one day, to free herself
from this thorn which tormented her, she vent
ured to ask him if he ever loved any other wonr
an but herself. Smiling, he answered her: "I as
sure you that I love the most amiable lady in
the world; to her I have given my whole heart
and rather would I die than cease to love her; if
you knew her, you would say that I ought to
love her more than I do." He meant the most
holy Virgin whom he loved so tenderly. But
his wife, conceiving a greater suspicion than be
fore, in order to ascertain the truth better, inter
rogated him anew, and asked him if he arose from
his bed and left the room every night to meet
that lady. The gentleman, who did not perceive
the great trouble of his wife, answered "Yes."
The wife was completely deceived, and, blinded
by passion, one night when her husband accord
ing to his custom, had left the chamber, seized
a.knife in despair, cut her throat, and very soon
died. Her husband having finished his devo-
tioni, returned to his apartment, but. on going

GLORIES OF MARY. 125

to bed, found it wet. He called his wife; she
did not answer: he tried to arouse her; she was
immovable. At length he took a light, found
the bed full of blood, and his wife dead, with
her throat cut. Then he perceived that she had
destroyed herself through jealousy. What does
he do? He locks the door of his apartment, re
turns to the chapel, prostrates himself before
the most blessed Virgin, and shedding a tor
rent of tears, said to her: "Oh my mother, be
hold my affliction: if thou dost not console me,
to whom shall I go ? Remember I am so unfor
tunate as to see my wife dead and lost because
I have come hither to pay thee honor, oh my moth
er, who dost help us in all our troubles, help me
now." How surely does every one obtain what
he wishes if he supplicates with confidence this
mother of mercy! No sooner did he offer this
prayer than he heard a servant-maid calling him:
"My lord, come to your apartment, for your lady
calls you." The gentleman could hardly believe
these words for joy. Return, he said to the
servant, and see if she really calls me. She re
turned, entreating him to go quickly, for her
mistress was waiting for him. He went, open-
ed the door, and found his wife living; she threw
herself at his feet in tears and begged him to
pardon her, saying : "Oh, my husband, the
mother of God, through thy prayer, has deliv
ered me from hell." Weeping for joy, they
went to their oratory to thank the blessed Vir
gin. The next day the husband made a feast

126 GLORIES OF MARY.

for all their relations, to whom the wife herself
related the facts, at the same time showing the
marks of the wound, and all were more deeply
inflamed with the love of the divine mother.

PRAYER.

Oh mother of holy love, oh our life, our ref
uge, and our hope, thou knowest that thy Son
Jesus Christ, not content with making himself
our perpetual intercessor with the eternal Fath
er, would have thee also engaged in obtaining
for us, by thy prayers, the divine mercy. He
has ordained that thy prayers should aid in our
salvation,and has given such power to them that
they obtain whatever they ask; I, a miserable
sinner, turn to thee then, oh hope of the wretch
ed. I hope, oh Lady, through the merits of
Jesus Christ and thy intercession to secure my
salvation. In these I trust; and so entirely do I
trust in thee, that if my eternal salvation were
in my own hands, I would wish to place it in
thine ; for in thy mercy and protection I would
trust far more than in my own works. My
mother and my hope, do not abandon me, as I
deserve. Behold my misery, pity me, help me,
save me. I confess that I have often, by my
sins, shut out the light and aid which thou hast
obtained for me from the Lord.

But thy compassion for the wretched and
thy power with God are far greater than the
number and malignity of my sins* It is known

GLORIES OF MARY.

in heaven and on earth that he who is protect
ed by thee will certainly not perish. Let all
forget me, but do not thou forget me, oh moth
er of the omnipotent God. Say unto God that
I am thy servant, tell him that I am defended
by thee, and I shall be saved. Oh Mary, I trust
in thee: in this hope I live, and in this hope I
wish to die, repeating always: "Jesus is my
only hope, and after Jesus, Mary."*

SECTION II.

MARY THE HOPE OF SINNERS.

AFTER God had created the earth he created
two lights, the greater and the less : the sun to
give light by day, and the moon to give light by
night.f The sun, says Cardinal Hugo, was the
type of Jesus Christ, in whose light the just re
joice who live in the daylight of divine grace ;
but the moon was the type of Mary, by whom
sinners are enlightened, who are living in the
night of sin.J Mary, then, being the moon, so
propitious to miserable sinners, if any unhappy
person, says Innocent III. finds that he has fall
en into this night of sin, what must he do ?
Since he has lost the light of the sun, by loosing
divine grace, let him turn to the moon, let him

pray to Mary, and she will give him light to
know the misery of his condition, and strength
to come forth from it.* St. Methodius says
that by the prayers of Mary innumerable sinners
are continually converted.!

One of the titles by which the holy Church
ttaches us to invoke the divine mother, and
ifcich most encourages poor sinners, is the title
of "Refuge of Sinners," with which we invoke
her in the Litanies. There were anciently, in
Judea, cities of refuge ; and criminals, who
sought protection in them, were free from the
penalty of their offences. Now, there are
not so many cities of refuge, but instead of
these there is one only, Mary ; of whom it was
epoken : Glorious things are said of thee, oh city
of God Gloriosa dieta sunt de te civitas Dei.J
But with this difference, that not all criminals
could find refuge in those ancient cities, nor for
all sorts of crime ; but under the mantle of
Mary all offenders may find protection, what
ever crimes they have committed. It is suffi
cient for any one to have recourse to her for
protection. "I am the city of refuge for all
those who flee to me," as St. John of Damascus
says, speaking in her name.

He who has been so happy as to enter this city
need not speak in order to secure his safety.
"Assemble yourselves and let us enter into the
fenced city, and let us be silent there."* This
fenced city, as the blessed Albertus Magnus ex
plains it, is the holy Virgin, whose defence is
grace and glory. "Let us be silent there," ac
cording to the gloss: "since we may not dare t:>
supplicate the Lord for pardon, it is enough that
we enter into the city and are silent, for then
Mary will speak and will pray for us. "f Whence
a devout writer exhorts all sinners to seek
shelter under the mantle of Mary, saying : Fly,
oh Adam, oh Eve, and ye their children, who
have offended God ; fly and take refuge in the
bosom of this good mother. Do you not know
that she is the only city of refuge, and the only
hope of sinners ?| As St. Augustine has called
her, The only hope of sinners : "ITnica spes
peccatorum. "

Hence St. Ephrem says: Thou art the only
advocate of sinners, and of those who are depriv
ed of every help; and he thus salutes her: Hail!
refuge and retreat of sinners, to whom alone
they can flee with confidence.! And this is

what David intended to express, says a certain
author, when he said:" He hath protected me in
the secret place of his tabernacle."* And what
is this tabernacle, if not Mary? As St. German-
us calls her, a tabernacle made by God, in which
none but God has entered, in order to complete
the great mysteries of human redemption.! On
this subject the great Father St. Basil says: The
Lord has given us Mary as a public hospital where
all the infirm are poor, and destitute of every
other help, may assemble: "Aperuit nobis Deua
publicum valetudinarium." Now, in hospitals
established expressly for the reception of the
poor, I would ask, who have the first claim to be
received, if not the poorest and most infirm?

Wherefore, let him who finds himself not mis
erable, because most destitute of merit, and
most afflicted by the maladies of the soul, name
ly, sins, say to Mary: Oh Lady, thou art the refuge
to the infirm; do not reject me, for, because I am
the poorest and most infirm of all, I have the
greater claim upon thee to receive me. Let us
say with St. Thomas of Villanova: Oh Mary, we
poor sinners know no refuge but thee. Thou art
our only hope; to thee we intrust our salvation.
Thou art the only advocate with Jesus Christ; to
to thee we all have recourse.!

In the Revelations of St. Bridget, Mary is
called the star going before the sun : **6idug
vadens ante solem."* By which we are to un
derstand, that when devotion to the divine
mother first dawns in a sinful soul, it is a certain
sign that God will soon come to enrich her with
his grace. The glorious St. Bonaventure, in
order to revive in the hearts of sinners confi
dence in the protection of Mary, represents to
us the sea in a tempest, in which sinners who
have fallen from the bark of divine grace, toss
ed about by remorse of conscience, and by
the fear of divine justice, without light and with
out a guide, have almost lost the breath of hope,
and are nearly sinking in despair ; at this criti
cal moment the saint, pointing to Mary, who is
commonly called "The star of the sea," raises
his voice and exclaims : Oh poor, lost sinners, do
not despair, lift your eyes to that beautiful star,
take courage and trust, for she will guide you
out of the tempest, and bring you to the port of
safety, f

St. Bernard has said the same thing : If you
would not be overwhelmed in the tempest, turn
to this star, and call Mary to thy aid.J The
devout Blosius also says that she is the only ref
uge for those who have offended God : the

asylum of all those who are tempted and afflict,
ed.* This mother of mercy is all kindness and
all sweetness, not only with the just, but also
with sinners and those who are in despair; so
that when she beholds them turning towards
her, and sees that they are with sincerity seek
ing her help, she at once welcomes them, aids
them, and obtains their pardon from her Son,f
She neglects none, however unworthy they may
be, and refuses to none her protection; she con
soles all; and no sooner do they call upon her,
than she hastens to their help.J With her gen
tleness she often wins their devotion, and raises
those pinners who are most averse to God, and
who are the most deeply plunged in the lethargy
of their vices that she may dispose them to re
ceive divine grace, and at last render them
selves worthy of eternal glory. God has creat
ed this his beloved daughter with a disposition
so kind and compassionate, that no one can hesi
tate to have recourse to her intercession. | The
devout writer concludes with saying: It is not
possible that any one can be lost, who with ex-

She is called a plane-tree: As a plane-tree was
I exalted: Quasi platauus exaltata sum."f Sin-
ners may understand by this, that as the plane-
tree gives a shelter to travellers, where they may
take refuge from the heat of the sun, thus Mary,
when she sees the anger of divine justice kin
dled against them, invites them to resort to the
shelter of her protection. St. Bonaventure re
marks that Isaias, in his day lamented, aud said,
" Behold, thou art angry and we have sin
ned there is none that riseth up and tak-

eth holdof thee;"J because Mary was not yet
bora into the woiid. But now, if God is offen
ded with any sinner, and Mary undertakes to
protect him, she restrains the Sou from punish
ing him, and saves him.J Also, continues St.
Bonaventure, no one can be found more fit than
Mary to place her hand upon the sword of divine
justice, that it may not descend upon the head
of the sinner.!" Richard of St. Laurence ex
presses the same thought, when he says: God
lamented, before the birth of Mary, that there
was no one to restrain him from punishing

St. Basil encourages sinners with the same
thought, and says: Oh sinner, be not timid, but
in all thy necessities flee to Mary, invoke her
aid, and thou wilt always find her ready to assist
thee, for it is the divine will that she should aid
all men in all their necessities.! This mother
of mercy has such a desire to save the most
abandoned sinners, that she even goes to seek
them ; and if they have recourse to her, she
will surely find a method of rendering them
dear to God.

Isaac baing desirous to eat the flesh of some
venison, promised to give his benediction in ex
change for it to Esau; but Rebecca wishing
that her other son Jacob should receive this ben
ediction, ordered him to bring her two kids, for
she would prepare the food that Isaac loved.
**Go thy way to the flock, bring me two kids."J
St. Antoninus says that Rebecca was the type
of Mary, who says to the angels, Bring me sin
ners (who are typified by the kids), that I may
prepare them in such a manner (by obtaining
for them sorrow and good resolutions) as to ren
der them dear and acceptable to my Lord.
The Abbot Francone, pursuing the same thought,

fays, that Mary so well understands Low to pre
pare these kids, that they not only equal, but
sometimes even surpass the flavor of venison.*

The blessed Virgin herself revealed to St.
Bridget, that no sinner in the world is so great
an enemy to God, that if he has recourse to her
and invokes her aid, does not return to God and
is not restored to his favor, f And the same
St. Bridget heard one day Jesus Christ saying
to his mother, that she could obtain the di
vine favor even for Lucifer, if he would humble
himself so far as to ask her help.J That proud
spirit would never stoop to implore the protec
tion of Mary, but if such a thing could happen,
Mary would take pity upon him, and the power
of her prayers would obtain from God his par
don and salvation. But what cannot happen to
the devil may well happen to sinners who seek
the help of this mother of mercy.

Noe s ark also prefigured Mary; because as in
that all the animal creation found refuge, so un
der the mantle of Mary all sinners find protec
tion, who have made themselves like the brutes
by their vices and sensuality. With this differ
ence, however, says a certain author: The brutes
entered into the ark and remained brutes

etiH;thewolf remained a wolf, the tiger a ti
ger* Bnt nnder the mantle of Mary the wolf
becomes a lamb, the tiger a dove. St Gertrude
once saw Mary with her mantle outspread, and
nnder it wild beasts of various kinds, leopards,
lions, and bears; and the Virgin not only did
not drive them from her but with her
hand kindlv received them and caressed
The saint understood that these wild beasts were
misfriMa sinners who when they take refuge
with Mary are received by her with sweetness
and love, f

Jusdy, then, did St. Bernard say to the Vir
gin: Ok Lady, thou dost abhor no sinner, how-
erer abandoned mud vile he may be, when he

- - -

udeseendio extend thy kind hand to
draw UK from the depths of despair.J Oh
t-.r _".,-, : - : : :.: -.- I . .- : G . . i ::. ^
amiable Mary, who made thee so merciful and
kind towards ihe most misoable sinners. Ob,
wretched are those who do not love thee, and
who, having it in their power to seek help of
ftoc, do not trust in thee! He who does not
implore the aid of Mary is lost: but who km
erer been lost that had recourse to her?

It is related in Sdiptnie that Boon permitted

r. ii -*

GLORIES OF JCABT. 137

the woman named Ruth to glean the ears that
the reapers dropped and left behind them:
" Colligebat si>icas post terga metentium." *
St. Bonaventnre adds, that as Ruth found fa
vor in the eyes of Booz. so Mary has found fa
vor in the eyes of the Lord, and is permitted to
glean after the reapers, f The reapers are the apo 1 -
tolic laborers, missionaries, preachers, and con
fessors, who toil through the day to gather and
win souls to God. But there are some rebellion*
and obdurate souls who are left behind even by
these reapers, and it is granted to Mary alone by
her powerful intercession to save these abandon
ed ears. But unhappy are those who do not yield
themselves to this sweet Lady! for they will be
entirely lost and accursed! Blessed, on the
other hand, are those who have recourse to this
good mother! There is no sinner in the world,
says the devout Blosius, so lost and sunk in sin,
that Mary would abhor him and reject him.
Ah, if such would seek her aid, this good moth
er could and wouM reconcile them to her Son,
and obtain for tuem pardon. J

"With reason, then, oh my sweetest queen,
does St. John of Damascus salute thee and call

BathiLS.

tBnth in ocnfis ltM,WMli inocnHs

5.:-=. t*

138 GLORIES OF MARY.

thee: "The hope of the despairing."* Justly does
St. Laurence Justinian name thee : "The hope
of evil-doers."f St. Augustine : "The only ref
uge of sinners."J St. Ephrem : "The secure
haven for the shipwrecked. " The same saint
calls thee even by another appellation : "The pro
tectress of the condemned."! Finally, St. Ber
nard, with reason, exhorts the desperate not to
despair ; whence, full of joy and tenderness tow
ards this his most dear mother, he asks her
lovingly : Oh Lady, who would not trust in thee,
if thou dost thus relieve even the despairing?
I do not doubt in the least, he adds, that if we
always applied to thee we should obtain what
we wish. In thee, then, let the despairing
hope. If St. Antoninus relates that a sinner
finding himself in disgrace before God, imagin
ed himself standing before the tribunal of Jesus
Christ : the devil was accusing him and Mary
defending him. The enemy presented against
this poor criminal the catalogue of his offences,
which, placed in the balance of divine justice
far outweighed his good works ; but what then
did his great advocate do ? She extended her
kind hand and placed it in the other scale; it de
scended in favor of her suppliant, and thus it

was given him to understand, that she would ob
tain his pardon if he would change his life; and,
indeed, after that vision he was converted and
changed his life.

EXAMPLE.

The blessed John Erolto, who, through hu
mility, called himself the disciple, relates,* that
there was once a married man who lived in dis
grace in the sight of God. His wife, a virtuous
woman, not being able to induce him to
abandon his vicious courses, entreated him that
at least, while he was in so miserable a condi
tion, he would offer this devotion to the mother
of God, namely, to say a "Hail Mary" every
time he passed before her altar. He according
ly began to practise this devotion. One night,
when he was about to commit a sin, he saw a
light, and, on closer observation, perceived that
it was a lamp burning before a holy image of
the blessed Virgin, who held the infant Jesus in
her arms. He said a "Hail Mary," as usual ;
but what did he see ? He saw the infant cover
ed with wounds, and fresh blood flowing from
them. Both terrified and moved in his feelings,
he remembered that he himself too had wound
ed his Redeemer by his sins, and began to weep,
but he observed that the child turned away
from him. In deep confusion, he had recourse
to the most holy Virgin, saying : "Mother of
mercy, thy Son rejects me ; I can find no adro-

140 GLORIES OF MARY.,

eate more kind and more powerful than thou,
\vho art his mother ; my queen, aid me, and pray
to him in my behalf." The divine mother an
swered him from that image : "You sinners call
me mother of mercy, but yet you do not cease
t.> make me mother of misery, renewing the pas
sion of my Son, and my dolors." But because
Mary never sends away disconsolate those who
cast themselves at her feet, she began to entreat
her Son that he would pardon that miserable
sinner. Jesus continued to show himself un
willing to grant such a pardon, but the holy
Virgin, placing the infant in the niche, prostrat
ed herself before him, saying : "My Son, I will
not leave thy feet until thou hast pardoned this
sinner." "My Mother," answered Jesus, "I can
deny thee nothing ; dost thou wish for his
pardon ? for love of thee I will pardon him.
Let him come and kiss my wounds." The sin
ner approached, weeping bitterly, and as he
kissed the wounds of the infant, they were
healed. Then Jesus embraced him as a sign of
pardon. He changed his conduct, led a holy
life, and was ever full of love to the blessed
Virgin, who had obtained for him so great a
favor.

PRAYER.

I venerate, oh most pure Virgin Mary, thy
most sacred heart, which was the delight and
repose of God ; a heart filled with humility,
purity, and divine love. I, an unhappy sinner,

GLORIES OF MARY. 141

come to thee with a heart filled with unclean-
ness and wounds. Oh mother of mercy, do not
on this account despise me, but let it excite
thee to a greater compassion, and come to my
help. Do not look for virtue or merits in me
before thou grantest me thy aid ; I am lost, and
only merit hell. Look at nothing, I pray thee,
but the confidence I have in thee, and the desire
I cherish of amending my life. Look at what
Jesus has done and suffered for me, and then
abandon me if thou canst. I offer to thee all the
afflictions of his life, the cold that he suffered
in the stable, his journey to Egypt, the blood
that he shed, his poverty, toil, sweat, and sad
ness, the death he endured in thy presence, for
love of me ; and, for the love of Jesus, promise
to save me. Ah, my mother, I will not and I
cannot fear that thou wilt cast me from thee,
when I flee to thee and implore thy help. To
fear this, would be unjust to thy mercy, which
seeks the miserable to relieve them. Oh Lady,
do not refuse thy compassion to him to whom
Jesus has not refused his blood ; but the merits
of this blood will not be applied to me, if thou
dost not recommend me to God, From thee I
hope salvation. I do not ask of thee riches,
honors, or the other goods of earth ; I only a&k
of thee the grace of God, love for thy Son, the
fulfilment of his will, and paradise, where I may
love him eternally. Is it possible that thou wilt
not hear me ? No, already thou dost hear me,
as I hope ; already thou art praying for me, al

AD TE CLAMAMTJS EXULES FILII HEV-ffi.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Ev.

SECTION I.

HOW BEADY MARY IS TO SUCCOR THOSE WHO CALL
UPON HER.

WE poor children of the unhappy Eve, guilty
before God of her sin, and condemned to the
same punishment, go wandering through this
valley of tears, exiles from our country, weep
ing and afflicted by innumerable pains of body
and soul! But blessed is he who in the midst
of so many miseries turns to the consoler of the
world, to the refuge of the unhappy, to the
great mother of God, and devoutly invokes her
and supplicates her! "Blessed is the man that
heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my
gates."* Blessed, says Mary, is he who listens
to my counsels, and incessantly watches at the

door of my mercy, invoking my help and inter
cession! The holy Church instructs us her chil
dren with how great attention and confidence we
should have continually recourse to this our lov
ing protectress; ordaining special devotions to
her, that during the year many festivals should
be celebrated in her honor; that one day of the
week should be especially consecrated to her;
that every day, in the divine office, all ecclesi
astics and members of religious orders should in
voke her in behalf of the whole Christian people,
and that three times a day all the faithful, at
the sound of the bell, should salute her. This will
suffice to show how , in all seasons of public
calamity, the holy Church always directs her
children to have recourse to the divine mother
with novenas, prayers, processions, visits to her
churches and altars. This, Mary herself wishes
us to do, namely, always to invoke and suppli
cate her, not to ask our homage and praise, which
are too poor in comparison with her merit, but
that our confidence and devotion to her thus in
creasing, she may aid and console us more. She
seeks such as approach her devoutly and rever
ently, says St. Bonaventure; these she cherishes.,
loves, and adopts as her children.*

The same St. Bonaventure says, that Mary
was prefigured by Ruth, whose name, being in
terpreted, signifies seeing , hastening /f for Mary,

seeing our miseries,~hastens to aid us by her com
passion.* < To which Novarino adds, that Mary
is so desirous to do us good, that she can bear
no delay; and not being a miserly keeper of her
favors, but the mother of mercy, she cannot re
strain herself from dispensing, as soon as possible
among her servants, the treasures of her liberal
ity, t

Oh, how ready is this good mother to aid him
who invokes her! "Thy two breasts are like
two young roes."J Richard of St. Laurence, ex
plaining this passage, says that the breasts of
Mary readily, like the roe s, give the milk of
mercy to those who ask it. The same author
assures us that the mercy of Mary is bestowed
on all who ask it, though they offer no prayer
but a "Hail Mary." Hence, Novarino affirms,
that the blessed Virgin not only hastens, but
flies to aid those who have recourse to her. She,
says this author, in exercising mercy, can
not but resemble God; for, as the Lord hastens
to succor those who ask help from him,
being very faithful to observe the promise which
he has made to us Ask, and you shall receive]
so Mary, when she is invoked, immediately

hastens to help those who call upon her.* And
by this is explained who was the woman of the
Apocalypse, with two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the desert.f Ribeira ex
plains these two wings to signify the love with
which Mary always hastens to God.J But the
blessed Amadeus says, remarking on this pas
sage, that the wings of an eagle signify the
velocity with which Mary, surpassing in swift
ness the seraphs, always comes to the help of
her children.

We read in the Gospel of St. Luke, that
when Mary went to visit St. Elizabeth, and be
stow blessings on all her family, she was not
slow, but travelled that whole journey with
haste. || But we do not read that it was so on
her return. For the same reason, it is said in
the sacred Canticles, that the hands of Mary
are turned. ^F For, as Richard of St. Laurence
explains it, The art of turning is easier and quick
er than other arts, so Mary is more ready
than any other of the saints to aid her suppli
ants.** She has the greatest desire to console all,

and she scarcely hears herself invoked before
she graciously receives the petition and comes
to our aid.* Justly, then, St. Bonaventurc
calls Mary, The salvation of those who invoke
her; "O salus te invocantium!" signifying, that
to be saved it is sufficient to appeal to this di
vine mother, who, according to Richard of St.
Laurence, is always ready to aid those who
pray to her.f For, as St. Bernardine de Bustis
says; This great Lady is more desirous to con
fer favors upon us than we are to receive them.J
Neither should the multitude of our sins di
minish our confidence that we shall be graciously
heard by Mary, if we cast ourselves at her feet.
She is the mother of mercy, and there would be
no occasion for mercy, if there were no wretch
edness to be relieved Therefore, as a good
mother does not hesitate to apply a remedy to
her child, however loathsome its disease, although
the cure may be troublesome and disgust
ing; thus our good mother does not abandon us,
when we recur to her however great may be the
filth of our sins, which she comes to cure. This
sentiment is taken from Richard of St. Lau
rence. And Mary intended to signify the same

when she appeared to St. Gertrude, spreading her
mantle to receive all who hadreccnrse to her: at
the Bame time it was given the So nt to under
stand, that the angels are waiting to defend the
devout suppliants of Mary from the assaults of
hell*

So great is the love and pity which this good
mother has for us, that she does not wait for
our prayers before giving us her aid. "She pre-
venteth them that covet her, so that she first
fihoweth herself unto them."f These words of
wisdom St. Anselm applies to Mary,and says that
she anticipates those who desire her protection.
By this we are to understand, that she obtains
many graces from God for us before we ask them
from her. Therefore Richard of St. Victor
says: Mary is called the moon: Pulchra utlunajj
net only because she hastens as the moon to
shine on those who seek her light, but because
ghe so earnestly desires our welfare that in our
necessities she anticipates our prayers, and in
her compassion she is more prompt to help us
than we are to have recourse to her. J For, adds
the same Richard, the breast of Mary
is so full of pity that she scarcely knows our
miseries before she offers us the milk of her
mercy, neither can this gracious queen perceive

the necessities of any soul without relieving it.*
And truly, Mary manifested to us while she
was on earth, in the nuptials of Cana,f her great
compassion for our sufferings, which prompts
her to relieve them before we pray to her. This
kind mother saw the trouble of that pair who
were mortified to find that their wine had failed
at the wedding banquet; and without being re
quested, moved only by her compassionate
heart, which cannot look upon the afflictions of
others without pity, prayed her Son, to console
them by merely mentioning to him the necessi
ties of the family: They have no wine: J "Vi-
num non habent." After which, her Son, to
comfort that family, and still more to satisfy
the compassionate heart of his mother, perform
ed, as she desired, the well-known miracle of
changing the water contained in vases into wine.
Kovarino here remarks, tli at if Mary, though un
asked, is so ready to aid us in our necessities,
how mucli more so will she be when we invoke
her and implore her aid!

If any one doubts that he shall be assisted by
Mary when he has recourse to her, let him listen
to the words of Innocent III.: Who has everinvo-
yoked this sweet Lady, and has not been heard by

her?* Who, oh holy Virgin, exclaims the
blessed Eutychian, has ever sought thy powerful
protection, which can relieve the most miser*
able and rescue the most degraded, and has been
abandoned by thee? No, this has never hap
pened, and never will happen. f Let him be si
lent concerning thy mercy, oh blessed Virgin,
whose necessities have been neglected by thee
after he has implored thy aid.J

Sooner will heaven and earth be destroyed,
says the devout Blosius, than Mary fail to aid
those who, with a pure intention, recommend
themselves to her and put their confidence in
her. And to increase our confidence, St. An-
selm adds, that when we have recourse to this
divine mother, we may not only be sure of her
protection, but that sometimes we shall be soon
er heard and saved by invoking her holy name
than that of Jesus our Saviour.] And he gives
this reason: Because it belongs to Christ, as our
judge, to punish, but to Mary, as our advocate,
to pity.T By this he would give us to under
stand, that we sooner find salvation by recur-

ring to wie mother than the Son; not because
Mary is more powerful than her Son to save us,
for we know that Jesus is our only Saviour, and
that by his merits alone he has obtained and
does obtain for us salvation; but because when
we have recourse to Jesus, considering him also
as the judge to whom it belongs to punish the
ungrateful, we may lose the confidence neces
sary to be heard; but going to Mary, who holds
no other office than that of exercising compassion
towards us as mother of mercy, and defending
us as our advocate our confidence will be more
secure and greater. We ask many things of
God and do not obtain them; we ask the;n from
Mary and obtain them; how is this? Nicephorus
answers: This does not happen because Mary is
more powerful than God, but because God has
seen fit thus to honor his mother.*

How consoling is the promise that our Lord
himself made on this subject to St. Bridget.
We read in her revelations, that one day this
saint heard Jesus speaking with his mother, and
that he said to her: "Mother, ask of me what
ever thou wilt, for I will refuse nothing that
thou dost ask;f and be assured," he added, "that
all those who for love of thee seek any favor,
although they are sinners, if they desire to
amend. I promise to hear them."! The same

thing was revealed to St. Gertrude, who heard
ur Redeemer himself say to Mary, that he had
in his omnipotence permitted her to exercise
mercy towards sinners who invoke her, in what
ever manner it should please her.*

Every one invoking this mother of mercy may
then say, with St. Augustine: "Remember, oh
most compassionate Lady! that since the begin
ning of the world there never has been any one
abandoned by thee. Therefore pardon me if I
say that I do not wish to be the first sinner who
has sought thy aid in vain."f

EXAMPLE.

St. Francis of Sales, as we read in his life, effi
caciously experienced the power of this prayer.
At seventeen years of age he was living in Paris,
engaged in study, and at the same time wholly
devoted to pious exercises and holy love of God,
which gave him a perpetual foretaste of heaven
ly joy. At this time the Lord, to try his faith,
and attach him more strongly to his love, per
mitted the devil to represent to him that his
efforts were in vain, because he was already
condemned by the divine decree. The darkness
and dryness in which it pleased God to leave
him at the time for he was insensible to all con-

soling thoughts of the divine goodness, caused
this temptation to have more power over the
heart of the holy youth; so that through great
fear and desolation he lost his appetite, sleep,
color, and cheerfulness, and excited the com
passion of all those who looked upon him.

Whilst this horrible conflict lasted, the saint
could conceive no other thoughts and utter no
other words but those of sorrow and distrust.
Shall I, then," he said, as it is related in his
life, "be deprived of the favor of my God, who
hitherto has shown himself so gracious
and so kind to me? Oh love! oh beauty !
to which I have consecrated all my affections,
shall I never more enjoy your consolations? Oh
Virgin mother of God, the most beautiful of all
the daughters of Jerusalem, ami then never to
see thee in paradise? Ah, my Lady! if I am
never to see thy lovely face, do not permit me
to be forced to blaspheme and curse thee in hell."
These were the tender sentiments of that afHict-
ted heart, still so enamored of God and the Vir
gin. This temptation lasted for a month, but
at length the Lord was pleased to deliver him
from it by means of the consolor of the world,
most holy Mary, to whom the saint had before
made a vow of chastity, and upon whom he used
to say he had placed all his hopes. One evening,
on returning home, he entered a church, where
he saw a small tablet suspended from the wall;
he found written on it the prayer of St. Augus
tine above mentioned: "Remember, oh mo$

GLORIES OF MARY. 153

merciful Mary! that no one, in any age, was ever
known to have fled to thee for help and found
himself abandoned." He prostrated himself be
fore the altar of the divine mother, and recited
with deep feeling this prayer; he renewed his
vow of chastity, promised to recite daily the
rosary, and then added: "Oh my queen, be my
advocate with thy Son, whom I dare not ap
proach. My mother, if in the other world I
should be so unhappy as not to be able to love
my Lord, whom I know is so worthy to be lov
ed, at least obtain for me that I may love him as
much as I can in this world. This is the grace
that I ask of thee, and from thee I hope for it."
Thus he supplicated the Virgin, and then abaiiv
doned himself to the divine mercy, resigning
himself entirely to the will of God. But hardly
had he finished his prayer, when by his most
sweet mother he was suddenly freed from temp
tation ; he immediately recovered his interior
peace, and with it health of body, and from that
time continued to live a most devout servant of
Mary, whose praises and mercies he never ceased
to proclaim in his preaching and his writings to
the end of his life.

fering myself to serve and honor thee to the uU
most of my power all the days of my life. I
know that thy honor is not increased by the ser
vice of so vile and wretched a slave as I arn^
who have so grievously offended thy Son and
iny Redeemer Jesus. But if thou wilt accept
one so unworthy as I for thy servant, and chang
ing him by thy intercession, wilt render him
worthy, thy own compassion will confer upon
thee that honor which I, vile as I am, cannot
render thee. Accept me, then, and do not re*
ject me, oh my mother! The eternal Word
came from heaven upon earth to seek the lost
sheep, and to save them, became thy Son. And
wilt thou despise a poor sheep, who comes to
thee to help him find Jesus? The price has al
ready been paid for my salvation; my Saviour
has shed his blood, which is enough to save in
finite worlds. It only remains this blood should
be applied to me; and to thee it belongs, oh
.blessed Virgin! to thee it belongs, as St. Ber
nard says, to bestow the merits of this blood on
whomsoever it may please thee. To thee it be
longs, as St. Bonaventure also says, to save
whom thou wilt.* Oh my queen, help me,
then! my queen, save me! To you this day I
commit my soul; and do thou secure its safety.
Oh, salvation of those who invoke thee I I will
exclaim with the same saint, save m

* Qnem ipea vis calvng erlt.
t O Mine te ia

LOBIE3 OF MARY.

SECTION II.

HOW rOTTERFUL IS MARY IN PROTECTING THOSE \THO
INVOKE HER IN TEMPTATIONS OP THE DEVIL.

NOT only most holy Mary is queen of heaven
and of the saints, but also of hell and the devils,
for she has bravely triumphed over them by
her virtues. From the beginning of the world
God predicted to the infernal serpent the
victory and the empire which our queen would
obtain over him, when he announced to him that
a woman would come into the world who should
conquer him. "I will put enmities between thee
and the woman ; she shall crush thy head."*
And what woman was this enemy if not Mary,
who, with her beautiful humility and holy
life, always conquered him and destroyed his
forces ? St. Cyprian affirms that the mother of
our Lord Jesus Christ was promised in that
woman :f and hence he remarks, that God did
not use the words I put, but I will put, lest the
prophecy should seem to appertain to Eve.J
He said, I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, to signify that this his vanquisher
was not the living Eve, but must be another
woman descending from her, who was to bring
to our first parents greater blessings, as St. Vin
cent Ferrer says, than those they had loet by

their sin.* Mary, then, is this great and strong
woman who has conquered the devil, and has
crushed his head by subduing his pride, as
the Lord added : "She shall crush thy head."f
Some of the commentators doubt whether these
words refer to Mary or to Jesus Christ, because
in the Septuagint version we read : "He shall
crush thy head."J But in our Vulgate, which
is the only version approved by the Council of
Trent, it is She, and not He. And thus St. Am
brose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John
Chrysostom, and many others have understood
it. However this may be, it is certain that the
Son by means of the mother, or the mother by
means of the Son, has vanquished Lucifer ; so
that this proud spirit, as St. Bernard tells
us, has been ignominiously overpowered and
crushed by this blessed Virgin. Hence as a
slave conquered in war, he is forced always to
obey the commands of this queen. St. Bruno
says, that Eve, by yielding to the serpent,
brought into the world death and darkness ;but
that the blessed Virgin, by conquering the devil
brought us life and light : and she has
bound him so that he cannot move to do the
least harm to her servants. [

Richard of St. Laurence gives a beautiful ex
planation to these words of Proverbs; "The
hearts of her husband trusteth in her, and he
shall have no need of spoils.* Richard says;
The heart of her husband, that is, Christ, trusts
in her, and he shall have no need of spoils, for
she will endow him with the spoils which she
has taken from the devil. f God has intrusted
the heart of Jesus, as a Lapide expresses it, to
the care of Mary, that she may procure for it
the love of men; and thus he will not be in need
of spoils, that is, of the conquest of souls, for
she will enrich him with those souls of which she
despoils hell, and which she has rescued from
the demons from her powerful aid.

It is well known that the palm is the emblem
of victory, and for this reason our queen has
been placed on a high throne in the sight of all
potentates, as a palm, the sign of certain victory,
which all can promise themselves who have re
course to her. "I was exalted like a palm-tree in
Cades."J That is, for a defence as blessed Al-
bertus Magnus says: Oh, my children, Mary seems
to say to us with these words, when the enemy as
sails you, lift your eyes to me, behold me and.
take courage; for in me, who defends you, you
will behold, at the same time, your victory. So

that recourse to Mary is the most certain meant
of overcoming all the assaults of hell; for she, as
St. Bernardine of Sienna says, is queen over
hell, and ruler of the spirits of evil, for she con
trols and conquers them.* And therefore Mary
is called terrible against the power of hell, as an
army set in array. "Terrible as an army set
in array."f Set in array, because she knows
how to array her powers, that is, her compas-
fion and her prayers, to the confusion of the en
emy and the benefit of her servants, who, in
their temptations, invoke her powerful aid.

"As the vine I have brought forth a pleas
ant odor."J "I, like the vine, as the Holy Spir
it puts it in her mouth to say, have given fruit
of sweet odor." "It is said," adds St, Bernard,
on this passage, " that every venomous reptile
shuns the flowering vines. " As from vines all
poisonous serpents flee, thus the demons flee
from those fortunate souls in whom they per
ceive the odor of devotion to Mary. On this
account she also is called a cedar: " I was exalt
ed like a cedar in Libanus,"] not only because
as the cedar is free from corruption, so Mary is
free from sin. but also because, as Cardinal Hugo

remarks upon this passage, as the cedar with its
perfume puts serpents to flight, so that Mary
with her sanctity puts to flight the devils.*

Victories were gained in Judea by means of
the ark. Thus Moses conquered his enemies.
"When the ark was lifted up, Moses said, Arise,
oh Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered."!
Thus Jericho was conquered; thus were the
Philistines conquered; "for the ark of God
was there."J It is well known that this ark
was the type of Mary. As the ark contained
the manna, thus Mary contained Jesus, whom
the manna also prefigured, and by means of
this ark, victories were gained over the enemies
of earth and over hell. Wherefore St. Ber-
nardine of Sienna says that when Mary, the ark
of the New Testament, was crowned queen of
heaven, the power of hell over men was weak
ened and overthrown.]

"Oh, how the devils in hell," says St. Bona-
venture, "tremble at Mary and her great
name!"H~ The saint compares these enemies to
those of whom Job makes mention and says:
"He diggeth through houses in the dark ....

If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them
the shadow of death."* Thieves enter houses
in the dark to rob them, but when the dawn
comes they flee, as if the image of death appeared
to them. In the same manner, as St. Bonaven-
ture expresses it, the demons enter into the soul in
times of darkness, that is, when the soul is ob
scured by ignorance; they dig through the
houses of our minds in the darkness of ignor
ance; but then, he adds, as soon as the
grace and the mercy of Mary enter the soul,
this beautiful aurora dissipates the darkness,
and the infernal enemies flee as at the approach
of death. f Oh, blessed is he who always, in hia
conflicts with hell, invokes the beautiful name
of Mary!

In confirmation of this it was revealed to St.
Bridget that God has given Mary such power
over all evil spirits, that whenever they assail
any of her servants who implore her aid, at the
slightest sign from her they flee far away in
terror, preferring that their pains should be re
doubled rather than that Mary should domineer
over them in this manner. J

A Lapide remarks upon the words with which
the divine spouse praises his beloved bride, when
he calls her the lily, and says that as the lily is
among thorns, so is his beloved among the other
daughters ;* that, as the lily is aremedy against
serpents and poisons, so the invocation of Mary
is a special remedy for overcoming all tempta
tions, particularly those of impurity, as they
who have tried it have universally experienc-
ed.f

St. John of Damascus said, and every one
may say the same who is so happy as to be de
voted to this great queen : Oh, mother of God,
if I trust in thee, I shall surely not be vanquish
ed ; for, defended by thee, I will pursue my
enemies, and opposing to them thy protection
and thy powerful support as a shield, I shall
surely conquer them.J James the Monk, reput
ed a doctor among the Greek fathers, discours
ing of Mary to our Lord, says : Thou, oh my
Lord, hast given us this mother for a powerful
defence against all our enemies.

It is related in the Old Testament that the
Lord guided his people from Egypt to the

promised land, by day in a pillar of clouds,
by night in a pillar of fire.* This pillar, now
of clouds, now of fire, says Richard of St.
Laurence, was a type of Mary and her double
office, which she exercises continually in our be
half ; as a cloud she protects us from the heat
of divine justice, and as fire she protects us from
demons.f Fire, as St. Bonaventure adds, for
as wax melts at the approach of fire, thus the evil
spirits lose all power in the presence of those
souls who often call upon the name of Mary,
and devoutly invoke her, and more than all,
strive to imitate her.|

Oh, how the devils tremble, exclaims St. Ber
nard, if they only hear the name of Mary utter
ed ! As men, says Thomas a Kempis, fall to
the earth through fear, when a thunderbolt
strikes near them, so fall prostrate the devils
when but the name of Mary is heard. | How-
many noble victories have the servants of Mary
not gained over these enemies by the power of

her most holy name II Thus St Anthony of
Padua conquered them, thus the blessed Henry
Suso, thus many other lovers of Mary. It i&
related in the accounts of the missions to Japan
that a great number of demons appeared in the
form of ferocious animals to a certain Christian
of that country, to alarm him and threaten him,
but he spoke to them in these words :"I have
no ?,rms with which to terrify you ; if the Most
High permits it, do with me according to your
pleasure. Meanwhile I use as my defence the
most sweet names of Jesus and Mary." Hardly
had he uttered these words, when behold, at the
sound of those fearful names, the earth opened
and those proud spirits were swallowed up. St.
Anselm also asserts that he had seen and heard
many persons who at the mention of the name
of Mary were delivered from their dangers.*

Vary glorious, oh Mary, and wonderful, ex
claims St. Bonaventure, is thy great name.
Those who art mindful to utter it at the houg
of death, have nothing to fear from hell, fot
the devils at once abandon the soul when they
hear the Dame of Mary.f And the saint adds,
that an earthly enemy dee *rt no gre&blf

a great army, as the powers of hell fear the
name and protection of Mary.* Thou, oh Lady,
says St. Germanus, by the invocation alone of
thy most powerful name, dost render thy ser
vants secure from all the assaults of the enemy.f
Oh, if Christians were mindful in temptations
to invoke with confidence the name of Mary, it
is certain that they would never fall ; for, as
blessed Alanus remarks, at the thunder of that
great name, the devil flees and hell trembles.J
This heavenly queen herself revealed to St.
Bridget, that even from the most abandoned sin
ners, who had wandered the farthest from God,
and were most fully possessed by the devil, the
enemy departs as soon as he hears her most
powerful name invoked by them, if they do it
with a true intention of amending. But the
Virgin added, that if the soul does not amend,
and with contrition quit its sins, the demons im
mediately return to it and hold it in their pos.
session.!!

ID Reisberg there lived a Canon regular named
Arnold, who was very devoted to the blessed Vir
gin. Being at the point of death, he received
the sacraments, and calling his religious to him,
begged them not to leave him at the last mo
ment. Scarcely had he said this, when he began
to tremble violently and roll his eyes; cold sweat
fell from him, and with an agitated voice he ex
claimed: "Do you not see those demons who
would seize me and carry me to hell?" Then ho
cried: My brothers, invoke for me the help of
Mary; I trust in her that she will give me the
victory." They immediately began to recite the
Litany of our Lady, and at the words, Holy Mary,
pray for him, "Sancta Maria, ora pro eo," the
dying man cried: "Repeat, repeat the name of
Mary, for I am even now at the tribunal of
God." He stopped for a moment, and then ad
ded: "It is true that I did it, but I have done
penance for it." Then turning to the Virgin, he
said: "Oh Mary, I shall be delivered if thou wilt
help me." The demons soon after made another
attack, but he defended himself by blessing him
self with the crucifix, and invoking Mary. Thus
he passed the whole night, but when morning
dawned, Arnold, restored to serenity, joyfully
said: "Mary, my Lady, and my refuge, has ob
tained for me pardon and salvation." Then be
holding the Virgin, who summoned him to f ol*

166 GLOF.IES OF

low her, he said : " I come, oh Lady, I come." He
made an effort to rise, but not being able to fol
low her with the body, gently expiring, he fol
lowed her with his soul, as we hope, to the blets-
ed kingdom of glory.*

PRAYER.

Behold at thy feet, oh Mary my hope, a poor
sinner who many times, through his own fault,
has been the slave of hell. I know that I have
often been conquered by the devil, because I
have neglected to recur to thee, oh my refuge.
If I had always sought thy protection, if I had
invoked thee, I should never have fallen. I hope,
oh my Lady, most worthy of love, that by thy
help I have escaped the powers of hell, and that
God has pardoned me. But I tremble for the
future, lest I again fall into their power. I know
that these enemies of mine have not lost all hope
of reconquering me, and at this moment they
are preparing new assaults and temptations.
Oh, my queen and refuge, aid me. Shelter me
beneath thy mantle, let me not become again
their slave. I know that thou wilt succor me
and give me victory whenever I invoke thee.
I fear only that in my temptations I may forget
thee, and neglect to call upon thee. This, then,
is the grace, oh most holy Virgin, that I seek
and wish from thee, that I may always remember

* Father Auriemma, Affetti Scambiev. Tom. i. e, 7.

GLORIES OF MARY. 167

thee, and especially when I find myself in conflict
with the enemy; let me not then fail to invoke
thee often with the words: "Oh Mary, help me,
help me, oh Mary." And when at length the
day of my last conflict with hell, the day of my
death arrives, oh, my queen , powerfully assist
me then, and remind me thyself to invoke thee
more frequently, with the voice or with the
heart, that expiring with thy most sweet name,
and that of thy son Jesus on my lips, I may go
to bless and praise thee, and never leave thy
feet in paradise through all eternity. Amen.

108 GLORIES OF MARY.

CHAPTER V.

AD TE SUSPIRAMUS GEMENTES ET FLENTES lH
HAC LACRYMARUM VALLE.

To thee do we send up our sighs, groaning and weeping In dhia val
ley of tears.

SECTION I.

THE NEED WE HAVE OP THE INTERCESSION OF MARt
FOR OUR SALVATION.

To invoke and pray to the saints, especially
to the queen of saints, most holy Mary, that
they may obtain for us, by their intercession,
the divine favor, is not only a lawful but a use
ful and holy practice, and this is of faith, being
established by the Councils, against heretics,
who condemn it as injurious to Jesus Christ,
who is our only mediator; but if a Jeremias, af
ter his death, prays for Jerusalem*; if the elders
of the Apocalypse present to God the prayers
of the saints; if a St. Peter promises his disciples
to remember them after his death; if a St.
Stephen prays for his persecutors; if a St. Paul
prays for his companions; if, in a word, the

* Mach. xv. 14.

GLORIES OF MARY. 169

aaints pray for us, why may we not implore the
saints to intercede for us? St. Paul commends
himself to the prayers of his disciples: Pray
for us: "Orate pro n obis."* St. James exhorts
the Christians to pray for each other: "Pray
for one another, that ye may be saved." f We
may then do likewise.

No one will deny that Jesus Christ is the only
mediator of justice, and that by his merits he
has obtained for us reconciliation with God.
But, on the other hand, it is impious to deny
that God is pleased to grant favors at the inter
cession of the saints, and especially of Mary his
mother, whom Jesus desires so much to see loved
and honored by us. Every one knows that
honor paid to a mother redounds to her children. J
Hence St. Bernard says, let not any one think that
by greatly praising the mother he will throw
into the shade the glories of the Son; for the
more he honors the mother, so much more he
honors the Son. St. Ildephonsus says, that all
the honor which is paid to the mother and the
queen, is rendered to the Son and king. | And
there is no doubt that on account of the merits
of Jesus, the great privilege has been granted
to Mary to be the mediatrix of our salvation;

not, indeed, mediatrix of justice, but of -
and intercession, as she is called by St. Bona-
venture. * St. Lawrence Justinian also says:
Can she be otherwise than full of grace, who
has been made the ladder of paradise, the gate
of heaven, the most true mediatrix between God
and man?f

Wherefore St. Anselm well remarks," that
when we implore the holy Virgin to obtain
graces for us, it is not that we distrust
the divine mercy, but rather that we distrust our
own unworthiness, and commend ourselves to
Mary that her merits may compensate for ooi*
un worthiness. J

It cannot be doubted, therefore, except by
those "wbo are deficient in faith, that it is a useful
and holy thing to have -recourse to the interces
sion of Mary. But the point that we here pro
pose to prove is, that the intercession of Mary
is even necessary for our salvation: necessary, to
speak properly, not indeed absolutely, but mor
ally. And we affirm that this necessity arises
from the will of God itself, who has ordained
that all the favors which he dispenses should
pass through the hands of Mary, according to the
opinion of St. Bernard, which may well be

sidered at the present day the common opinion of
doctors and divines, as the author of "The king
dom of Mary" has already called it It is embrac
ed by Vega, Mendoza, Paciucchelli, Segneri,.
Poire, Crasset, and innumerable other learned r au-
thors. Even Father Noel Alexander, an author
usually very reserved in his assertions, declares it
to be the will of God that we receive all f avore
through the intercession of Mary.* In confirma
tion of this, he quotes the celebrated passage of
St. Bernard: This is the will of him who would
have us receive all things through Mary.f The
same opinion is held by Father Contensone who,
explaining the words of Jesus Christ of the
cross to John, behold thy mother, "Ecce mater
tua," says: It is as if he said, no one shall par
take of my blood except by the intercession of
my mother. My wounds are fountains of grace,
but to none can their streams be conveyed ex
cept by the channel of Mary.; Oh John, my ..dis
ciple, even as thou lovest my* mother, * so shalt
thou be loved by me.J

The statement that ; whatsoever > we Deceive
from the Lord comes to us by meanC~plFMaryi
does not find favor with a certain ; mod ernfaa-

thor, who, although he treats with much piety
and learning of true and false devotion, yet speak
ing of the devotion towards the divine mother,
has shown himself very sparing in granting her
the glory that a St. Germanus, a St. Anselm, a
St. John of Damascus, a St. Bonaventure, a St.
Antoninus, a St. Bernardine of Sienna, the vener
able Abbot of Celles, and so many other doc
tors, have not hesitated to attribute to her
who have not scrupled to declare that for the
above-mentioned reason the intercession of Mary
is not only useful, but necessary. The above-
named author says that this proposition, namely,
that God grants no favor except through Mary, is
an hyperbole and an exaggeration which has es
caped from the mouth of some saints in a mo
ment of fervor, and properly speaking, is to be
understood only in the sense that through Mary
we have received Jesus Christ, by whose merits
we receive all graces. Otherwise, he continues,
it would be an error to believe that God could
not grant graces, without the intercession of
Mary, since the apostle says: "There is one God
and one Mediator of God and men, the man
Christ Jesus."* So far the above-named author.
But witli his leave I will suggest to him what
he himself in his book teaches me, that the me
diation of justice by means of merit, and the me
diation of grace by means of prayer, are very
different things. Thus it is also one thing to
ay that God cannot, another to say he will not

* 1 Tim. ii. 6.

GLORIES OF MARY.

grant favors without the intercession of Mary.
We willingly acknowledge that God is the foun
tain of every good, and absolute Lord of all
graces and that Mary is only a pure creature who,
through grace, receives whatever she obtains
from God. But who can deny it to be reason
able and proper to assert that God, in order to
exalt this noble creature, who, more than all
other creatures, has loved and honored him in
her life, having chosen her for the mother of his
Son the Redeemer of the world, has also seen
fit to dispense through her hands all the graces
which are to be granted to redeemed souls? We
acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the only me
diator of justice, as we have stated above, who
by his merits obtains for us grace and salvation;
but we affirm that Mary is the mediatrix ^of
grace, and although whatever she obtains, she
obtains through the merits of Jesus Christ, and
because she prays and asks for it in the name
of Jesus Christ, yet whatever favors we ask are
all obtained through her intercession.

In this there is certainly nothing opposed to
the sacred doctrines; on the contrary, it is entire
ly conformed to the sentiments of the Church,
who, in the public prayers, by her approved,
teaches us to appeal constantly to his divine
mother, and invoke her as the Health of the
weak: "Salus infirmorum." The Refuge of sin
ners: "Refugium peccatorem." The Help of
Christians: "Auxiliumchristianorum." Our life
*nd our hope: "Vita et spes nostra." The same

174 GLORIES OF MARY.

holy Church, in the office which she requires to
be recited on the Festivals of Mary, applying to
her the words of Wisdom, gives us to under
stand that in Mary we shall find every hope:
"In me is all hope of life and virtue."* That in
Mary we shall find every grace: "In me is all
grace of the way and of the truth."f In a word,
that we shall find in Mary life and eternal sal
vation: "He that shall find me shall find life, and
shall have salvation from the Lord."J And again:
"They that work by me shall not sin. They that
explain me shall have life everlasting." All
which passages signify the need we have of the
intercession of Mary.

This then is the sentiment in which so many
theologians and holy fathers concur, of whom
we cannot with justice say, as the author quoted
atfove has asserted, that to exalt Mary they have
uttered hyperboles, and that excessive exaggera
tions have fallen from their lips. To exaggerate
and utter hyperboles, is to exceed the limits of
truth, which cannot be said of the saints who
have spoken, enlightened by the Spirit of God,
who is the Spirit of truth. And here, if I may
make a brief digression, let me express a senti
ment of mine, namely: when an opinion is in any
way honorable to the most holy Virgin, and has
some foundation, and is not repugnant to the

faith and the decrees of the Church, and to the
truth, the rejection of it, and opposition to it, be
cause the contrary may also be true, indicates
little devotion to the mother of God. I would
not be one of the number of these, nor would I
gee you, my reader, one of them, but rather of
the number of those who fully and firmly be
lieve all that can be believed, without error, con
cerning the greatness of Mary, as the Abbot Ru
pert says, who places among the offerings of
devotion most pleasing to this mother, that of a
firm belief in her great privileges.* If no one
else, St. Augustine at least might remove from
us all fear of exaggeration in the praise of Mary,
who asserts that all we may say in her praise is
little in comparison with what she merits on ac
count of her dignity as mother of God. The holy
Church also, in the Mass of the blessed Virgin,
requires these words to be read: "For thou art
happy, oh sacred Yirgin Mary, and most worthy
of all praise. "f

But let us return to our subject, and hear
what the saints say of the opinion in question.
St. Bernard says that God had bestowed all
graces on Mary, that men, through her as
through a channel, may receive whatever goods
is in store for them.J; Moreover, the saint here
makes an important reflection, and says that be-

* Ejus magnalia flrmiter credere. Laud. Virg.

t Felix namque es, sacra Virgo Maria, et omni lande digniseima,

Plenug aquwductus, ut accipiant cteteri de plenitudine. Sena,

GLORIES OF MARY.

fore the birth of the most holy Virgin there
ed no such current of grace for all, since this de
sired channel did not yet exist.* But for this end,
he adds. Mary has been given to the world, that
through this channel the divine graces might
continually flow down upon us.f

As Holof ernes, in order to gain the city of
Bethulia, directed the aqueducts to be broken,
so the devil makes every effort to deprive souls
of their devotion to the mother of God ; for, if
this channel of grace were closed, he could ea
sily succeed in gaining them to himself. The
same holy father continues, and says : Observe,
then, oh souls, with what affection and devotion
the Lord would have us honor this our queen,
by always seeking and confiding in her protec
tion ; for in her he has placed the fulness of all
good, that henceforth we may recognize as com
ing from Mary whatever of hope, grace, or sal
vation we receive. J St. Antoninus says the
same thing : All the mercies ever bestowed upon
men have all come through Mary.

cause, as St. Bonaventure remarks, as the moon
is between the sun and the earth, and reflects upon
the latter what she receives from the former, so
Mary receives the celestial influences of grace
from the divine Son, to transfuse them into us
who are upon the earth.*

For this reason, too, she is called the gate of
heaven by the holy Church: "Felix coeli porta;"
because, St. Bernard again observes, as every
rescript of grace sent by the king comes through
the palace gate, so it is given to Mary, that
through her thou shouldst receive whatever thou
hast.f St. Bonaventure, moreover, says that
Mary is called the gate of heaven, because, no
one can enter heaven if he does not pass through
Mary, who is the door of it.J

St. Jerome confirms us in the same sentiment
(or, as some persons think, another ancient au
thor of a sermon upon the Assumption which is
inserted among the works of St. Jerome), when
he says, that in Jesus Christ was the fulness of
grace as in the head, whence descend to the
members, which we are, all the vital spirits, that
is, the divine aids for attaining eternal salva
tion: in Mary likewise was fulness as in the neck,

through which those vital spirits pass to the
members.* This is confirmed by St. Bernardine
of Sienna, who more clearly unfolded this
thought, Baying that through Mary are> trans
mitted to the faithful, who are the mystic
body of Jesus Christ, all the graces of the spir
itual life, which descends upon them from Jesus
their head.f

St. Bonaventure also attempts to assign the rea
son for this when he says: Grod being pleased to
dwell in the womb of this holy Virgin, she has
acquired thereby, in a certain sense, a kind of
jurisdiction over all graces; since Jesus came
from her sacred womb, together with him pro
ceed from her, as from a celestial ocean, all the
streams of divine gifts. J St. Bernardine of Si
enna expresses this in even clearer terms. From
the time, he asserts, that this mother conceived
in her womb the Divine Word, she acquired, if
we may thus express it, a special right to the
gifts which proceed to us from the Holy Spirit,
BO that no creature has received any grace from
God except by the intervention and hand of
Mary.g

And thus is explained by a certain author*
that passage of Jeremias where the prophet,
speaking of the incarnation of the Word and of
Mary his mother, says, that "a woman shall com
pass a man."f The author above named explains
this to mean that, as no line proceeds from the
centre of a circle which does not pass through
its circumference ; thus no grace comes to us
from Jesus, who is the centre of every good,
that does not pass through Mary, who encom
passed him after she had received him in her
womb.

Hence, says St. Bernardine, all gifts, all virtues,
and all graces, are dispensed by Mary J to whom
she will, when she will, and in the manner she will.
Richard likewise says, that God wishes all the
good he bestows on creatures to pass through the
hands of Mary. Hence the venerable Abbot
of Celles exhorts every one to have recourse to
this treasurer of graces, as he calls her: "The-
saurariam gratiarum;" for only by her means
the world and men are to receive all the good
they may hope for.|| By which it is evident

that the saints and authors above quoted, in
saying that all graces come to us through Mary,
have not intended to say this only because we
have received from Mary, Jesus Christ, who is
the fountain of every good, as the author named
above would imply; but they assure us that
God, after having given us Jesus Christ, has
decreed that all the graces which have been dis
pensed, are dispensed, and shall be dispensed to
men, even to the end of the world, through the
merits of Jesus, shall be dispensed through the
hands and by the intercession of Mary.

Hence Father Suarez concludes it to be the
universal sentiment of the Church at the present
day, that the intercession of Mary is not only
useful, but necessary.* Necessary, as we said
before, not in the sense of absolute necessity,
because only the mediation of Jesus Christ is
absolutely necessary for us, but in the sense of
moral necessity; for the Church holds the opinion,
with St. Bernard, that God has chosen to bestow
no grace upon us but by the hands of Mary.f
St. Ildephonsus affirmed this before St. Bernard,
when, addressing the Virgin, he says: Oh Mary,
God has decreed to commit to thee all the favors
that he would confer upon men; hence he has
confided to thee all the treasures and riches of
grace.! And therefore St. Peter Damian

Bays,* that God would not become man without
the consent of Mary, that, in the first place, we
might remain greatly indebted to her; and sec
ondly, that we might understand the salvation
of all men to be made dependent upon her good
pleasure.

St. Bonaventure, contemplating the words of
Isaias, where the prophet says; From the race of
Jesse there shall come forth a rod that is, Mary;
and from that the flower that is, the Word in
carnate^ utters these beautiful words: Let him
who would obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit,
seek the flower in the rod, Jesus in Mary; since
by the rod we obtain the flower, and by the
flower we find God.J And he afterwards adds:
If thou wouldst have this flower, strive, with
prayers, to incline the stem of the flower in thy
favor, and thou wilt obtain it. The seraphic
Doctor, also commenting on the words: They
found the child with Mary his mother,"|| says:
Jesus is never found but with and through Mary ;T

and concludes with these words: He seeks Jesus
In vain who does not look for him with Mary.*
Hence St. Ildephonsus says: I would be a ser
vant of the Son, and as he can never be a servant
of the Son who is not the servant of the mother,
my ambition is to be a servant of Mary.f

EXAMPLE.

It is related by BelluacensisJ and Cesarius,
that a noble youth having lost by his vices the
wealth left him by his father, became so poor
that he was obliged to beg. He quitted his na
tive land, that he might live with less shame in
a distant country where he was unknown. On
this journey he met one day an old servant of
his father, who, seeing him so cast down by the
poverty he was Buffering, told him to cheer up,
for he would take him to a prince who was so
liberal that he would provide him with every
thing he needed. Now this wretch was an impious
sorcerer. One day he took the youth with him
to a wood on the borders of a moor, where he be
gan to address some invisible person. The youth
asked to whom he was speaking. "To the
devil," he answered; and seeing the youth terri
fied, bade him not to fear. Continuing to speak

with the devil, he said: "This youth, oh my mas
ter, is reduced to extreme necessity, and wishes
to be restored to his former condition." " If ha
will obey me," said the enemy, * I will make him
richer than before; but in the first place, he must
renounce God." At this the youth shuddered,
but urged on by that cursed magician, he yield
ed, and renounced God. " But this is not suffici
ent," said the demon; "he must also renounce
Mary; for it is to her that we attribute our great
est losses. Oh, how many souls she has snatch
ed from us, and led back to God and saved!"
"Oh, this I will not do," exclaimed the youth;
"deny Mary! why she is my only hope. I
would rather be a beggar all my life." With
these words he left the place. On his way he
happened to pass a church dedicated to Mary.
The unhappy youth entered it, and kneeling
before her altar, began to weep and implore the
most holy Virgin that she would obtain the pai-
don of his sins. Mar^ immediately began to in
tercede with the Son for that miserable being.
Jesus at first said: "But that ungrateful youth,
my mother, has denied me." But seeing that
his mother still continued to entreat him, he at
last said: "Oh, my mother, I have never refused
thee any thing; he shall be pardoned, since thou
dost ask it." The citizen who had purchased the
inheritance of that prodigal was secretly present
at this scene, and beholding the mercy of Mary
towards that sinner, he gave him his only daugh
ter in marriage, and made him heir of all his pos-

184 GLORIES OF MARY.

sessions. Thus that youth recovered, through
the intercession of Mary, the favor of God and
even his temporal possessions.

PRAYER.

Oh my soul! behold the beautiful hope of sal
vation, and of life eternal, which the Lord has
granted thee, by giving thee, in his mercy, con
fidence in the protection of his mother, when
thou hast by thy sins so often merited his dis
pleasure and the pains of hell. Give thanks, then,
to God, and to thy protectress, Mary, who hath
deigned to shelter thee beneath her mantle, as al
ready thou certainly knowest, by the many graces
that thou hast received through her. Yes, I thank
thee, oh my loving mother! for the good thou
hast done me, a miserable sinner, deserving of
hell. From how many dangers hast thou deliver
ed me, oh my queen! How much light and how
many mercies hast thou obtained for me, from
God, by thy intercession! What great advan
tage, or what great honor hast thou received
from me, that thou art thus intent on doing me
good?

Thy goodness alone, then, hath moved thee in
my behalf. Ah! if I were to give my blood, my
life for thee, it would be little compared to what
I owe thee, for thou hast delivered me from eter
nal death; thou, who hast enabled me to recover,
as I hope, the divine favor, and from thee final
ly I acknowledge all my blessings to proceed.

GLORIES OF MARY. 185

Oh my Lady! most worthy of love, I a miserable
creature can make thee no return but always to
praise and love thee. Ah! do not disdain to ac
cept the affection of a poor sinner, who is en
amored of thy goodness. If my heart is not
worthy to love thee, because it is evil and full
of earthly affections, do thou change it. Ah!
unite me to my God, and unite me so that I can
never be separated from his love. This thou
desirest of me, that I may love tby God, and
this I wish from thee. Obtain for me that I
may love him, and love him always, and I ask
nothing more. Amen.

SECTION II.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

ST. BERNARD says, that as a man and a wom
an have co-operated for our ruin, so it was fit
that another man and another woman should co
operate for our restoration; and these were
Jesus and his mother Mary. Doubtless, says
the saint, Jesus Christ alone was all-sufficient
for our redemption: yet it was more fitting that
each sex should take part in our redemption,
when both took part in our corruption. * For
this reason blessed Albertus Magnus calls Mary
the co-operatrix with Christ in our redemption:
"Adjutrix Redemptionis." And she herself re
vealed to St. Bridget, that as Adam and Eve

sold the world for one apple, so her Son and!
herself with one heart redeemed the world.*
God could, indeed, as St. Anselm asserts, create
the world from nothing; but when it was lost
by sin, he would not redeem it without the co
operation of Mary.f

In three ways, says Father Suarez, the divine
mother shared in the work of our salvation: first,
by having merited, that is, with merit of con-
gruity, the Incarnation of the Word. Second
ly, by praying much for us while she lived on
the earth. Thirdly, by willingly sacrificing to
God the life of her Son for our salvation; and
therefore the Lord has justly ordained that as
Mary has, with so much love for man, aided in the
salvation of all, and thereby so greatly promoted
the glory of God, all through her intercession
shall obtain salvation.

Mary is called the co-operatrix with her Son
in our justification, because God has committed
to her keeping all the graces that he has des
tined for us.J Wherefore St. Bernard affirms,
that all men, past, present, and to come, should
regard her as the medium and negotiator of the
salvation of all ages.

Jesus Christ has said, that no one could find
him unless his Eternal Father drew him by his
divine grace.* Thus, also, according to Rich
ard, Jesus said of his mother: No one comes to
me unless my mother draw him with her pray-
ers.f

Jesus was the fruit of Mary, as Elizabeth ex
pressed it: " Blessed art thou among women, and
blessed is the fruit of thy womb."| Who-
ever, then, wishes for the fruit, must go to the
tree; whoever wishes for Jesus must go to Mary;
and he who finds Mary, certainly also finds Jesus.
St. Elizabeth, when the most holy Virgin came
to visit her in her house, not knowing how to
thank her, in deep humility exclaimed: "How
have I merited that the mother of my God
should come to visit me?" But why! we may
ask: did not Elizabeth already know that not
Mary only, but Jesus also, had entered her
dwelling? And why, then, does she call herself
unworthy to receive the mother, and not rather
unworthy of receiving a visit from the Son. Ah,
well did the saint understand that when Mary
comes she brings Jesus also; and hence it was
sufficient for her to thank the mother, without
naming the Son.

her bread from afar."* Mary is that bleswd
ghip, which brought to us from heaven Jesus
Christ, the living bread that came from heaven
to give us life eternal, as he has said: "I am the
living bread which came down from heaven: if
any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever."}-
Hence Richard of St. Laurence says, that all
those will be lost in the sea of this world who
are not received into this ship, that is, protect
ed by Mary.J He also adds, that whenever
"we find ourselves in danger of destruction from
the temptations or passions of the present life,
we ought to flee to Mary, crying quickly, Oh
Lady, help us; save us, if thou wouldst not see
us lost. And let it be remarked here, in pass
ing, that this writer does not hesitate to say to
Mary: Save us, we perish "Salva nos, perhnus;"
as the author mentioned several times in the
previous section does, who denies that we can
ask the Virgin to save us, because, as he says it
belongs only to God to save us. But if a
person condemned to death may ask some fa
vorite of the king to save him by interceding
for him with his prince, why cannot we im
plore the mother of God to save us by obtaining
for us through her prayers the grace of eter-

nal life? St. John of Damascus did not hesi
tate to say to the Virgin: Oh pure and immacu
late queen, save me, deliver me from eternal
damnation.* St. Bonaventure called Mary the
salvation of those invoking her.f The Church al
lows us to invoke her: Health of the weak "Sa-
lus infirmorum;" and shall we hesitate to ask her
to save us, when, according to a certain author,
to no one is the door of salvation open except
through her?J And before him St. Germanus,
speaking of Mary, said: No one can be saved
except through thee.

But let us see what more the saints say of the
need we have of the intercession of the divine
mother. The glorious St. Cajetan said that we
could ask for graces, but we could never obtain
them without the intercession of Mary. And
St. Antoninus confirms this, expressing himself
thus beautifully: Whoever asks and wishes to
obtain graces without the intercession of Mary,
attempts to fly without wings ;|| for, as Pharaoh
said to Joseph, "The land of Egypt is in thy
hand;"*! an d as he sent all those to Joseph who
applied to him for assistance, saying: Go to
Joseph "Ite ad Joseph;" so God, when we

supplicate him for favors, sends us to Mary:
Go to Mary " Ite ad Mariam;" for he has de
creed, says St. Bernard, that he will grant no
favors except through the hands of Mary.*
Hence Richard of St. Laurence says: Our salva
tion is in the hands of Mary, and we Christians
can more justly say to her than the Egyptians to
Joseph, our salvation is in thy hand.f The
venerable Idiot says the same thing: Our salva
tion is in her hands " Salus nostra in manu
illius est."J Cassian asserts the same thing, but
in stronger language. He absolutely affirms
that the salvation of the whole world depends
upon the favor and protection of Mary. St. Ber-
nardine of Sienna thus addresses her: Oh Lady,
since thou art the dispenser of all graces, and
we must receive the grace of salvation through
thy hand alone, then our salvation depends on
thee.J

Richard says rightly then, that as a stone falls
so soon as the earth is removed from beneath it, in
like manner a soul, if the support of Mary is taken
away, will fall first into sin and then into hell. ^
St. Bonaventure adds, that God will not save us

without the intercession of Mary,* and goes on
to say, that as an infant cannot live without its
nurse, so no one without the protection of Mary
can be saved. f Therefore he exhorts us in this
way: Let thy soul thirst for devotion to Mary;
preserve it always, never abandon it until you
arrive in heaven and receive her maternal ben
ediction. | Who, says St. Germanus, would ever
know God, if it were not through thee, oh most
holy Mary? Who would be saved? Who would
be free from peril? Who would receive any
favor if it were not through thee, oh mother of
God? Oh Virgin mother, oh full of grace!
And in another place he says: If thou didst not
open the way, no one would be frefi from the
sting of the flesh and of sin.|]

As we have access to the eternal Father only
through Jesus Christ, so, says St. Bernard, waj
have access to Jesus Christ only through Mary.T
And St. Bernard gives us the reason why the Lord
decreed that all men should be saved by the in-

tercession of Mary, namely that through Mary we
might be received by that Saviour who, through
Mary, has been given to us; and therefore the
saint calls her the mother of grace and of our
salvation. Then, resumes St. Germ anus, what
would become of us? what hope of salvation
would remain to us if thou, oh Mary, didst
abandon us, thou who art the life of Christians?*
But, the modern author above quoted remarks:
If all graces pass through Mary, when we
implore the intercession of the saints, they must
have recourse to the meditation of Mary to ob
tain for us these graces. This, however, says
he, no one believes, or has ever thought of. I
reply, that there can be no error or difficulty in
believing this. What difficulty is there in saying
that God, to honor his mother, having crowned her
queen of the saints, and having ordained that
all graces should be dispensed by her hands
would have the saints also invoke her to obtain
favors for their clients? As to saying that no
one has ever thought of it, I find that St. Ber
nard, St. Anselm, St. Bonaventure, Father Sua-
rezf also, and others expressly assert it. In vain,
says St. Bernard, would one pray to the other
saints for a desired favor, if Mary did not inter
cede to obtain it for them. { Thus also a cer
tain author explains, in this connection, that

passage of David: "All the rich among the peo
ple shall entreat thy countenance."* The rich
of that great people of God are the saints, who,
when they wish to obtain a favor for one of
their clients, all recommend themselves to Mary,
that she may obtain it for them. Justly, then,
says Father Suarez, we implore the saints to be
our intercessors with Mary, who is their lady
and queen. f

It is precisely this which St. Benedict promised
to St. Frances of Rome, as we learn from Father
Marchese.J The above-named saint appeared
to her one day, and taking her under his protec
tion, promised to be her advocate with the di
vine mother. St. Anselm adds, in confirmation
of this, addressing the blessed Virgin : Oh Lady,
what the prayers of all these saints can obtain,
in union with thine, thou canst obtain, by thy
intercession alone without their aid. But
wherefore hast thou such power? "quare hoc
potes?" continues the saint. Because thou alone
art the mother of our common Saviour, thou art
the spouse of God, the universal queen of heaven
and earth.]] If thou dost not speak for us, no

saint will pray for us and aid us.* But if them
art moved to pray for us, all the saints will en
gage to intercede for us and help us.f Sosayi
Father Segneri,J applying to Mary, as the holy
Church does, these words of Wisdom: "I alone
have compassed the circuit of heaven." As
with its motion the first sphere puts in motion
all the others, so when Mary is moved to pray
for a soul, she moves all heaven to pray with
her. St. Bonaventure says even, that when she
commands, as being their queen, all the saints
and angels to accompany her and unite their
prayerstohers.||

So we see, finally., why the holy Church re
quires us to invoke and salute the divine mother
with the great riame of our hope: Hail our hope,
"Spes nostra salve." The impious Luther could
not endure that the holy Roman Church should
call Mary, our hope;*f because, as he said, God
only and Jesus Christ as our mediator are our
hope; but that God curses those who place their
hope in any creature, as we find in Jeremias:
"Cursed be the man that trustethin man."**

But the Church teaches us everywhere to invoke
Mary, and call her our hope: "Spesnostra salve."
Whoever places his hope in a creature, independ
ently of God, is certainly accursed of God, since
God is the only fountain and the dispenser of
every good, and the creature, without God, has
nothing and can do nothing. But if the Lord
has ordained, as we have proved, that all graces
shall pass through Mary, as a channel of mercy,
we can, and ought even to assert that Mary is
our hope, by whose intercession we receive divine
graces, and therefore it is St. Bernard called her
the whole cause of his hope.* St. John of Da
mascus expresses the same thing when, address
ing the blessed Virgin, he says to her: Oh Lady,
in thee I have placed all my hope, and with firm
confidence I look to thee for my salvation, f St.
Thomas says that Mary is all the hope of our
salvation. J St. Ephrem explains: Oh most holy
Virgin, receive us under thy protection, if thou
wilt see us saved, since we have no other hope
of being saved but through thee.

We will then conclude in the words of St.
Bernard: Let us strive, with all the affections of
our heart, to reverence this divine mother, Mary,
since this is the will of that Lord who would

have us receive all good from her hands.* And
the saint exhorts us, whenever we desire and
ask any favor, to recommend ourselves to Mary,
and trust that we shall obtain it through her in
tercession. f For, says the saint, if you do not
deserve from God the favor you ask, Mary, who
asks it in your behalf, merits to obtain it.J
Hence the same Bernard exhorts us each and all,
that, whatever we offer to God, whether works
or prayers, we recommend all to Mary, if we
wish our Lord to accept them.

EXAMPLE.

Eutychian, Patriarch of Constantinople, re
lates the following well-known story of Theo-
philus. The Patriarch was an eye-witness of
the fact which we here relate, and which is con
firmed by St. Peter Damian, St. Bernard, St.
Bonaventure, St. Antoninus, andothers.|| Theo-
philus was archdeacon of the Church of Adanas,
a city of Cilicia; and was so much esteemed,
that the people wished him to become their
bishop, but his humility prevented his consent.

Some malicious persons afterwards accused him,
and he was deposed from his office. This afflict
ed him so much, that, blinded by passion, he
went to a Jewish magician, who induced him
to apply to Satan for help in his misfortunes.
The devil answered that if he wished his assist
ance, he must renounce Jesus, and Mary his moth
er, and hand over to him the act of renuncia
tion, written with his own hand. Theophilus
executed the vile document. On the following
day the bishop having heard of the wrong done
him by his calumniators, asked his forgiveness,
and restored him to his office. But Theophilus
began then to feel so tortured by remorse of
conscience on account of the great crime he had
committed, that he wept continually. What
does he do? He enters a church, prostrates him
self in tears before an altar of the blessed Vir
gin, and exclaims: <k Oh mother of God, I will not
despair having thee, who art FO merciful, to aid
me." He persevered forty days in weeping and
praying thus to the holy Virgin; when behold,
one night the mother of mercy appeared to him
and said: "Oh Theophilu?, what have you done?
you have renounced my friendship and that of
my Son; and for whom? fur your own and my
enemy." " Oh Lady," answered Theophilus, "it
belongs to thee to pardon me, and to obtain my
pardon from thy Son." Then Mary, seeing his
confidence, answered, <; Take courage, and I will
pray for thee." Theophilus, encouraged by
these words, redoubled his tears, his penance,

198 GLORIES OF MARY.

and his prayers, remaining constantly at the
foot of the altar. And, behold, Mary appeared
to him again, and with a joyful countenance
said to him: "Theophilus, rejoice, I have pre
sented thy tears and thy prayers to God; he
hath accepted them, and hath already pardoned
thee; henceforth be grateful and faithful." "Oh
Lady,"replied Theophilus, "this is not sufficient
to console me; the enemy still holds that impious
deed, by which I have renounced thee and thy
Son; thou canst obtain it for me." After three
days Theophilus awoke one night, and found
the paper on his breast. The next day, when
the bishop with a large assembly were present
in the church, Theophilus cast himself at his
feet, related the whole story, weeping bitterly,
and gave him the infamous writing, which the
bishop immediately ordered to be burned in
presence of all the people, who wept for joy,
praising the goodness of God, and the mercy of
Mary towards that miserable sinner. Theophi
lus returned to the church of the Virgin, and
there, three days afterwards, he died hap
pily, with thanksgivings to Jesus and his holy
mother on his lips.

PRAYER.

Oh Queen and Mother of mercy! who dost dis
pense graces to all those who have recourse to
thee, so liberally because thou art queen, and
With so much love because thou art our most

GLOBtES OF MARY.

loying mother; to thee I commend myself to
day, destitute of merits and virtues as I am, and
laden with debts to the divine justice. Oh t
Mary, thou hast the keys of all the divine mer
cies, do not forget my miseries, and do not leave
me in my great poverty. Thou who art so
liberal with all, and who givest more than is
asked of thee, do so with me, Oh Lady, protect
me, this is all I ask. If thou dost protect me
I fear nothing. I do not fear the demons, for
thou art more powerful than all the spirits of hell;
nor my sins, for one word of thine in my behalf
can obtain pardon of them all from God. If I
have thy favor I do not fear even the anger of God,
for he is appeased by one prayer of thine. In a
word, if thou dost protect me I hope all things,
because all things are possible with thee. Oh
mother of mercy, I know that thou takest pleas
ure and pride in giving succor to the most mis
erable, for thou canst aid them, if not prevented
by their obstinacy. I am a sinner, but I am
not obstinate; I wish to change my life. Thou
canst, then, help me; do help and save me. To
day I place myself entirely in thy hands. Teach
me what I must do to please God, and I will do it;
and I hope to do so with thy aid, oh Mary, Mary,
my mother, my light, my consolation, my refuge,
and my hope. Amen, amen, amen.

200 GLOEIES OF MARY.

CHAPTER VI

JA ERGO ADVOCATA NOSTEA.

Ah, then, our advocate.

SECTION I.

HARY IS AN ADVOCATE POWERFUL TO SAVE ALL.

So great is the authority of mothers over
their children that although they may be mon-
archs, having absolute dominion over all the
persons in their kingdom, yet their mothers can
never become subject to them. It is true that
Jesus is now in heaven, for he is seated there
at the right hand of the Father even as man, as
St. Thomas explains it; by reason of the hypos-
tatic union with the person of the Word, and
has supreme dominion over all, and even over
Mary; yet it will always be true, that at the time
when our Redeemer lived on this earth, he was
pleased to humble himself and make himself sub
ject to Mary, as St. Luke teaches us: And he was
Bubject to them: "Erat subditus illis."* St. Am
brose even says, that Jesus Christ having deign
ed to make Mary his mother, was obliged as her
son to obey her. And therefore, observes Rich

* 0. li. T. fiL

GLORIES OF MARY. 201

ard of St. Laurence, it is said of the other saints,
that they are with God; but of Mary alone can
it be said, that not only was it her lot to be sub
ject to the will of God, but that God was also
subject to her will.* And as it is said of the
other holy virgins, as the same author remarks,
that they follow the divine lamb wherever he
goes: "seqmmtur agnum quocumque ierit;"f of
the Virgin Mary it may be said, that the di
vine Lamb followed her on this earth, having
become subject to her.J

Hence we may say, that though Mary is in
heaven, and can no longer command her Son,
yet her prayers will ever be the prayers of a
mother, and therefore most powerful to obtain
whatever she asks. Mary, says St. Bonaven-
ture, has this privilege with her Son, that she is
most powerful to obtain by her prayers whatso
ever she will. And wherefore? Precisely for
the reason which we have before mentioned,
and which we will now examine more fully,
namely, because the prayers of Mary are the
prayers of a mother. And therefore, says St.
Peter Damian, the Virgin has all power in
heaven as on earth, being able to raise to the

hope of salvation even the most despairing.
And then he adds, that when the mother asks
any favor for us of Jesus Christ (called by the
saint the altar of mercy where sinners obtain
pardon from God), the Son has so great regard
for the prayers of Mary, and so great a desire to
please her, that when she prays, she seems to
command rather that request, and to be a mis
tress rather than a handmaid.f Thus Jesus
would honor this his dear mother, who has
honored him so much in her life, by granting
her immediately whatever she asks and desires.
St. Germanus beautifully confirms this by say
ing to the Virgin: Thou art mother of God,
omnipotent to save sinners, and needest no oth
er recommendation with God, since thou art the
mother of true life.J

St. Bernard ine of Sienna does not hesitate to
say that all obey the commands of Mary, even
God himself ; signifying by these words, that
God listens to her prayers as though they were
commands. Hence St. Anselm thus addresses
Mary: The Lord, oh holy Virgin, lias so highly
exalted thee, that by his favor thou canst obtain

all possible graces for thy servants, for thy pro
tection is omnipotent.* Thy help is omnipo
tent, oh Mary: Omnipotens auxilium tuum,
O Maria;" as Cosmas of Jerusalem exclaims.
Yes, Mary is omnipotent, adds Richard of St.
Laurence, since the queen, by every law,
must enjoy the same privileges as the king.
For as the power of the Son and mother are
the same, the mother by the omnipotent Son is
made omnipotent.! As St. Antoninus says: God
has placed the whole Church, not only under
the patronage, but also under the dominion of
Mary.J

As the mother, then, must have the same power
as the Son, justly was Mary made omnipotent by
Jesus, who is omnipotent; it being, however, al
ways true, that whereas the Son is omnipotent
by nature, the mother is so by grace. And her
omnipotence consists in this, that the Son denies
nothing that the mother asks; as it was revealed
to St. Bridget, who heard Jesus one day address
ing Mary in these words: * Ohmy mother, thou
knowest bow I love thee; ask from me, then,
whatever thou dost desire, for there is no demand
of thine that will not be graciously heard by
me." And the reason that he added was beauti-

ful: "Mother, when thou wast on earth, there
was nothing thou didst refuse to do for love of
me; now that I am in heaven, it is just that I re
fuse nothing which thou dost ask of me.*
Mary is, then, called omnipotent in the sense in
which it can be understood of a creature, who is
not capable of any divine attribute. She is om
nipotent, because she obtains by her prayers
whatever she wishes.

With reason, then, oh our great advocate! says
St. Bernard, dost thou only wish, and it is done:
" Velis tu et omnia fient." And St. Anselm :
Whatever thou askest, oh Virgin ! cannot but be
done.f Wish, and it will be done ; dost thou
wish to raise the most abandoned sinner to an
exalted sanctity, to thee it is given to do it. The
blessed Albertus Magnus represents Mary speak
ing thus: I must be asked to wish, for if I wish it
must be done.J Hence St. Peter Damian, con
templating this great power of Mary, and pray
ing her to have pity on us, says: Oh Mary! oh
our beloved advocate! since thou hast a heart so
compassionate, that thou canst not behold the
miserable without pity, and, at the same time,
hast so great a power with God to save all those
whom thou dost defend; deign to intercede in
behalf of us miserable creatures, who place in

tbee all our hopes. If our prayers do not move
thee, may thy merciful heart at least move thee;
may thy power at least move thee, since God,
for this end, has enriched thee with so much
power, that the richer thou art in the power to
aid us, so much more compassionate thou may-
est be in thy desire to aid us.* Of this, St. Ber
nard assures us, saying, that Mary is abundant
in mercy as well as in power; as her charity is
most powerful, so also is it most merciful in our
behalf, and this is manifested to us continually
by its effects.f

Even when she was living on this earth, the
only thought of Mary, after the glory of God,
was to relieve the wretched. And we know
that then she enjoyed already the privilege of
obtaining whatever she asked. This we know
from what took place at the nuptials of Cana
of Galilee, when the wine failed, and the blessed
Virgin, compassionating the distress and morti
fication of that family, asked the Son to relieve
them by a miracle, making known to him this
want: They have no wine: "Vinum non habent."J
Jesus answered : "Woman, what is that to thee
and to me V my hour is not yet come." Ob
serve, that although the Lord appeared to refuse

this favor to his mother, by saying: Of what
importance is it, oh woman, to me and to thee
that the wine has failed? It does not become
me now to perform any miracle, as the time
has not arrived, the time of my preaching, when
with signs I must confirm my doctrine; yet
notwithstanding this, Mary, as if the Son had
already granted her the favor, said to the at
tendants, Fill the water-pots with water: "Imple
hydrias aqua."* Come fill the water-pots, and
you will be consoled; and Jesus Christ, indeed to
please his mother, changed that water into the
best wine. But how is this? If the time ap
pointed for miracles was the time of preaching,
how could it be anticipated by the miracle of
the wine, contrary to the divine decree? Noth
ing, it may be answered, was done contrary to
the divine decree; for although, generally speak
ing, the time for signs had not come, yet from
eternity God had established by another gener
al decree, that nothing the divine mother could
ask should be denied her; and therefore Mary, well
acquainted with her privilege, although her Son
leemed to have then set aside her petition, said
notwithstanding, that the water-pots should be
filled, as though the favor was already granted.
This, St. John Chrysostom would .express, when
commenting on the passage of John above men
tioned "Oh woman, what is that to thee and to
me?" he says, t hat although Jesus had answer-)

* Joan. ii. r.

GLOBIBS OP MABT. 207

ed thus, yet, for the honor of his mother, he
did not fail to comply with her demand.* St.
Thomas confirms the same, when he observes, that
by these words "My hour has not yet come"
Jesus Christ wished to show that he would have
deferred the miracle, if another had asked him to
perform it; but because his mother asked it, he
immediately performed it.J St. Cyril and St.
Jerome confirm this, according to Barrada.
And Jansenius of Ghent says, commenting on
the same passage of St. John: That he might
honor his mother, he anticipated the time of
working miracles.J

In a word, it is certain that no creature can
obtain for us miserable sinners so many mercies
as this good advocate, who is honored by God
with this privilege, not only as his beloved
handmaid, but also as his true mother. William
of Paris says this when addressing her. It is
enough that Mary speaks, and the Son does all
she wishes. The Lord, speaking to the spouse
of the Canticles, by whom is understood Mary,
says: "Thou that dwellest in the gardens the

friends hearken, make me hear thy voice.* 1 *
The friends are the saints, who, when they ask
any favor for their clients, wait until their queen
prays to God for it and obtains it; for, as was
said before in Chap. V., no favor is dispensed
except by the intercession of Mary. And how
does Mary obtain favors? It is enough that her
Son hears her voice: Make me to hear thy voices
" Fac me audire vocem tuam." it is enough
that she speaks, and her Son immediately hears
her. William of Paris, explaining in the same
way the passage above named, introduces the
Son, who thus addresses Mary: Oh thou who
dwellest in the celestial gardens, intercede with
confidence for whomsoever thou wilt, for I can
not forget that I am thy Son, or think of refus
ing any thing to my mother. It is enough for
thee to speak, and thy Son will graciously hear
and grant thy petition. f The Abbot Godfrey
says that Mary, although she obtains favors by
praying, yet prays with a kind of maternal au
thority; hence we may be sure that she will ob
tain whatever she desires and asks for us.J
It is related of Coriolanup, by Valerius Maxi-

mus,* that when he held Rome besieged, all the
prayers of his friends and of the citizens could
not induce him to withdraw his forces; but
when his mother Veturia came to entreat him
he could not resist, and immediately raised the
siege. But the prayers of Mary are as much
more powerful with Jesus than the prayers of
Veturia with her son, as the love and gratitude
of Jesus to Mary exceeds that of the son of
Veturia for his mother. Father Justin Mico-
viensis writes: One sigh of Mary has more power
than the prayers of all the saints united. f The
devil himself confessed this same thing to St.
Dominic, when, constrained by his commands,
he spoke through the mouth of a possessed
person, saying, as Father Pacciucchelli narrates^
that one sigh of Mary availed more with God
than the united prayers of all the saints.

St. Antoninus says, that the prayers of the
blessed Virgin being the prayers of a mother,
have a certain kind of authority, hence it is im
possible that she should not be heard when she
prays. On this account St. Germanus encour
ages sinners to recommend themselves to this
advocate with these words; Thou, oh Mary,
having the authority of a mother with God, dost

obtain pardon for the vilest sinners; for the
Lord, who in all things recognizes thee for his
true mother, cannot refuse to grant thee what
ever thou dost ask.* St. Bridget, too, heard
the saints in heaven say ing to the Virgin: What
is there that thou canst not do? Whatever thou
dost desire is done.f To which corresponds
that celebrated verse: What God by a command,
thou, oh Virgin, by a prayer canst effect.J Is it
not, says St. Augustine, worthy of the goodness
of the Lord thus to guard the honor of his moth
er? for he asserts that he has come on the earth,
not to break, but to fulfil the law, which, among
other things, commands us to honor our parents.
St. George, Archbishop of Nicomedia, even
adds, that Jesus Christ grants to his motker all
her petitions, as if to satisfy the obligation that
he is under to her for having caused, by her con-
Bent, that the human nature should be given
him.J Wherefore, St. Methodius, the martyr ex
claims: Rejoice, oh Mary, that a Son has fallen
to thy lot as thy debtor, who gives to all and

receives from none. We are all debtors to
God for whatever we possess, since every thing
is his gift; but God has wished to make himself
a debtor to thee, taking from thee his body
and becoming man.* So also St. Augustine says:
Mary having merited to give flesh to the Divine
"Word, and by that to furnish the price of the
divine redemption, that we might be delivered
from eternal death; therefore is she, says the
same doctor, more powerful than any other to
help us and obtain for us eternal salvation.f
Hence St. Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria,
who lived in the time of St. Jerome, thus wrote:
The Son is pleased to be entreated by his moth
er, because he wishes to grant for her sake all
that he does grant; aud thus to recompense the
favor he has received from her when she gave
him flesh. Hence St. John Damascene addresses
the Virgin in these words: Thou, then, oh Mary,
being mother of God, canst save all men by thy
prayers, which are enforced by a mother s au-
thority.J

Let us conclude with the words of St. Bona-
venture, who, considering the great benefit which
the Lord has conferred on us in giving us Mary
for our advocate, thus addresses her: Oh truly

immense and admirable goodness of God, whotc
us miserable, guilty creatures, has grunted thee,
oh our Lady, for our advocate,that thou inightest,
by thy powerful intercession, obtain for us what
ever good thou wilt.* Oh, the great mercy of
God, continues the saint, who, that we might
not flee to hide ourselves from the sentence to
be pronounced upon us, has destined his own
mother and the treasurer of graces for our ad-
vocate.f

EXAMPLE.

Father Razzi, of the order of Camaldoli, relates
that a certain youth having lost his father, was
sent by his mother to the court of a princ e. {
The mother, who had a great devotion to Mary,
when she parted with him made him promise to
recite every day a "Hail Mary," and add these
words: "Blessed Virgin, help me in the hour of
my death" The youth arrived at court, but
soon began to lead so dissolute a life, that his
master was obliged to send him away. In de
spair, without means of support, he went into the
country and became a highway robber; but even
then he did not omit to recommend himself to
our Lady, as his mother had directed him, At

length he fell into the hands of justice, and was
condemned to death. Being in prison the evening
before his execution, and thinking of his dis
grace, the grief of his mother, and the death
which awaited him, he fell to weeping bitterly.
The devil seeing him so oppressed by melancholy,
appeared to him in the form of a beautiful young
man, and said to him that he would release him
from death and prison, if he would follow his
directions. The convict engaged to do all that
he required. Then the pretended youth made
known to him that he was the devil and had come
to his assistance. In the first place, he ordered
him to renounce Jesus Christ and the holy sacra
ments. The youth consented. He then requir
ed him to renounce the Virgin Mary and her
protection. "This," exclaimed the young man,
"I will never do," and turning to Mary, repeat
ed the accustomed prayer that his mother had
taught him: Blessed Virgin, help me in the hour
of my death. At these words the devil disap
peared. The youth remained in great affliction
for the wickedness he had committed in denying
Jesus Christ. He invoked the blessed Virgin,
and she obtained for him, by her prayers, a great
sorrow for all his sins, so that he made his con
fession with much weeping and contrition. On
his way to the gallows, happening to pass before
a statue of Mary, he saluted her with his usual
prayer: Blessed Virgin, help me in the hour of
vny death, and the statue, in the presence of all,
inclined its head and saluted him. Deeply mov-

GLORIES OF MARY.

ed, he begged to be allowed to kiss the feet of
the image. The executioners refused, but after
wards consented on account of the clamor of the
people. The youth stooped to kiss her feet,
and Mary extended her arm from that
statue, took him by the hand and held
him so strongly that no power could
move him. At this prodigy the multitude
shouted "Pardon, pardon," and pardon was grant
ed. Having returned to his country, he led an
exemplary life, and was always most devoted to
Mary, who had delivered him from temporal
and eternal death.

PRAYER.

Oh great mother of God, I will say to thee
with St. Bernard: Thy Son hears thee and will
grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask.* Speak
then, speak, oh Mary our advocate , in behalf of us
miserable creatures. Remember that thou hast
received thy great power and dignity even for
our benefit. A God has chosen to become thy
debtor, by taking from thee the human nature
to the end that thou mayest dispense to the mis
erable the riches of divine mercy. We are thy
servants, in a special manner consecrated to thy
service, and among these I hope to be one. We
glory in living under thy protection. If thou
doest good to all, even to those who do not know
thee and do not honor thee, and who even insult

tnd blaspheme thee; how much ought we to hope
from thy kindness, who dost seek for the wretch
ed that thou mayest relieve them! we who hon
or, love, and trust in thee! We are great sinners,
but God has granted thee mercy and power great
er than all our sins. Thou canst and wilt save
us; and we will so much the more earnestly de
sire this, as we are unworthy of it, that we may
glorify thee the more in heaven, when we shall
have been received there by thy intercession.
Oh,mother of mercy, we present to thee our souls
once pure and washed with the blood of Jesus
Christ,but since defiled with sin. To thee we
present them, wilt thou purify them? Obtain for
us sincere amendment, obtain for us the love of
God, perseverance, paradise. We ask great
things of thee, but canst thou not obtain them all
for us? Are they greater than the love God has
for thee? Thou hast only to open thy lips in pray
er to thy Son, and he will grant thee all things.
Pray, then, pray, oh Mary, for us; and surely
thou wilt be heard graciously, and we shall be
saved.

SECTION II.

MARY IS A MERCIFUL ADVOCATE, WHO DOES NOT REFUSE
TO DEFEND THE CAUSE OF THE MOST MISERABLE SINNERS.

THERE are so many reasons why we should
love this our loving queen, that if all the earth
should praise Mary, and all sermons treat of
her alone, and all men should give their Hvea

216 GLORIES OP MARY.

for Mary, it would yet be little compared to the
homage and gratitude we owe her, for the
very tender love she bears to all men, even
to the most miserable sinners who preserve tow*
ards her any feeling of devotion. Raymond
Jordan declares that Mary cannot but love those
who love her. Nay she does not disdain even
to serve those who serve her, using, if they are
sinners, all the power of her intercession to ob
tain pardon for them from her blessed Son.*
And so great, he goes on to say,is her kindness
and compassion, that no one, however degraded
he may be, should fear to cast himself at her
feet, since she rejects no one who has recourse
to her.f Mary, as our most loving advocate,
offers herself to God the prayers of her servants,
especially those which are offered to her; for as
the Son intercedes for us with the Father, thus
she intercedes for us with the Son, and never
ceases to intercede with both for our salvation,
and to obtain for us the favors that we ask.J
Rightly, then, does the blessed Denis, the Car
thusian, call the holy Virgin the peculiar
refuge of the lost, the hope of the wretch
ed and the advocate of all sinners who have re
course to her.

But if there ever be any sinner who, indeedj
does not doubt the power, but has no trust in
the mercy of Mary, fearing that she may not be
willing to aid him on account of the magnitude
of his offences, St. Bon a venture encourages him
by saying; Great and peculiar is the privilege
which Mary has with her Son, of obtaining by
her prayers whatever she desires;* but what
would this great power of Mary avail us, he
adds, if she should be indifferent to our wel
fare?! No, let us not doubt, concludes the saint,
let us be secure, and always thank the Lord and
his divine mother for it; for, as she is the most
powerful of all saints with God, so she is the
most loving advocate, and the most desirous of
our welfare.! And who, oh mother of sinners!
joyfully exclaims St. Germanus, who, after thy
Jesus, has so much care of us, and of our wel
fare, as thou? Who doth defend us in the
trials that afflict us, as thou dost defend us?
Who take upon himself to protect sinners, as
if combating in their behalf, as thou dost?|
Wherefore, he adds, thy patronage, oh Mary!
is more powerful and loving than we are able
to comprehend. *[ Whilst, as the Idiot says, all

the other saints can aid their own servants by
their patronage more than others; the divine
mother, as she is the queen of all, so is she the
advocate of all, and cares for the salvation of
all*

She cares for all, even for sinners, and glories
especially in being called their advocate; as she
herself declared to the venerable sister Mary Vil-
lani, saying: "Next to the title of mother of God,
I glory most in being named the advocate of sin
ners." The blessed Amadeus says, that our queen
is always before the divine Majesty, interceding
for us with her powerful prayers.f And since
in heaven she knows perfectly our miseries and
necessities, she cannot but have pity on us; so,
with the affection of a mother, moved by com
passion for us, she kindly and mercifully endeav
ors to relieve and save us. J It is with good rea
son, then, that Richard of St. Laurence encour
ages every one, however degraded he may be, to
appeal confidently to this sweet advocate, in the
certain belief that he will always find her ready
to help him. It is also well said by Godfrey,

that Mary is every ready to pray for all.*
And oh, with how much efficacy and love, St.
Bernard exclaims, this good advocate of ours
conducts the cause of our salvation !f St.
Augustine, contemplating the affection and ear
nestness with which Mary is continually occupied
in interceding with the divine Majesty for us,
that the Lord may pardon our sins, assist us
with his grace, free us from dangers, and relieve
us from our miseries, thus addresses the holy
Virgin :J Oh Lady! it is true that all the saints
desire our salvation and pray for us; but the
charity and tenderness which thou dost mani
fest for us in heaven, by obtaining with thy
prayers so many mercies from God, obliges us
to confess, that we have in heaven only one ad
vocate, that is thyself, and that thou alone
art the only true lover watchful of our wel
fare. And who can comprehend the soli
citude with which Mary is always waiting on
God in our behalf? St. Germanus says: She is
never satisfied with defending us: "Non est sa-
tietas def ensionis ejus." The expression is beauti
ful. So great is the pity which Mary has for our
miseries, and so great is the love she bears us,
that she prays always, and prays again and is
never satisfied with praying for us, and defend-

ing us from evil with her prayers, and obtain
ing for us favors she is never satisfied with de*
fending us.

What poor sinners we should be if we had
not this advocate, so powerful and so merciful,
and at the same time so prudent and so wise,
that the judge, her Son, cannot condemn the
guilty, if she defends them, as Richard of St.
Laurence says.* Well then, does St. John ( the
geometrician) salute her: Hail, authority which
puts an end to strife.} For all the causes de*
fended by this most wise advocate are gained.
Hence Mary is called by St. Bonaventure, the
wise Abigail "Abigail sapiens." This was
the woman who, as we read in the first of Kings,
knew so well how to appease King David, by
her persuasive entreaties, when he was full of
indignation against Nabal, that he himself bless
ed and thanked her for having with her sweet
words, prevented him from revenging himself
upon Nabal with his own hands.J Precisely the
same thing does Mary continually in heaven, in
behalf of innumerable sinners: she knows so well
how to appease the divine justice with her ten
der and wise entreaties, that God himself bless
es her for it, and as it were thanks her, that thus

he restrains him from abandoning and punish?
ing them as they deserve. For this end, saya
St. Bernard, the eternal Father, desirous to show
all possible compassion towards us, besides Jesus
Christ, our principal advocate with himself, has
given us Mary for our advocate with Jesus
Christ.

There is no doubt, says St. Bernard, that
Jesus is the only mediator of justice between
men and God, who in virtue of his merits can,
and according to his promises will, obtain for us
pardon and divine grace; but because men rec
ognize and fear in Jesus Christ the divine
majesty, which dwells in him as God, it was
necessary that another advocate should be assign
ed to us, to whom we could have recourse with
less fear and more confidence; and this is Mary,
than whom we can find no advocate more power
ful with the divine majesty and more compassion
ate towards us.* But he would greatly wrong
the mercy of Mary, continues the saint, who
should still fear to cast himself at the feet of this
most sweet advocate, who is in nothing severe or
terrible, but is in all things kind, lovely, and
compassionate. f Read and revolve as much as
you will all the history found in the Gospel, and
if you find any act of austerity in Mary, then fear

to approach her. But you will never find any;
go then joyfully to her, for she will save thee by
her intercession.*

Exceedingly beautiful is the exclamation
which William of Paris puts in the mouth of a
sinner who has recourse to Mary: Oh mother of
my God, I come to tbee full of confidence, even
in the miserable state to which I find myself re
duced by my sins; if thou dost reject me, I
will plead with thee, for in a certain sense thou
art bound to help me since all the Church of the
faithful calls thee and proclaims thee mother
of mercy.f Thou, oh Mary, art so dear to God
that he always graciously listens to thee; thy
great mercy has never failed; thy most sweet
condescension has never despised any sinner,
however enormous his sins, who has had recourse
to thee.J What! could the whole Church
falsely and in vain name thee her advocate and
the refuge of sinners? No, never be it said
that my sins prevent thee, oh my mother, from
exercising the great office of mercy which thou

dost hold, by which thou art at the same time
the advocate and mediator of peace between
God and man, and next to thy Son the only hope
and refuge of sinners.* Whatever of grace and
glory is thine, even the dignity of being mother
of God itself, if I may so speak, thou owest to
sinners, since for their sake the divine Word has
made thee his mother.f Far from this divine
mother who has brought forth unto the world the
fountain of mercy, be the thought that she, could
refuse her compassion to any sinner who recom
mends himself to her.J Since, then, oh Mary,
thy office is that of peacemaker between God and
man, may thy great mercy, which far exceeds
all my sins, move thee to aid me.

Console yourselves, then, oh ye faint of heart,
I will say with St. Thomas of Villanova, tako
heart, oh miserable sinners; this great Virgin,
who is the mother of your judge and God, is the
advocate of the human race. Powerful and able
to obtain whatever she wishes from God; most

wise, for she knows every method of appeasing
him; universal, for she welcomes all, and refuses
to defend none.*

EXAMPLE.

Our advocate has shown how great is her kind
ness towards sinners by her mercy to .Beatrice,
a nun in the monastery of Fontebraldo, as relat
ed by Cesariu8,f and by Father Rho.J This un
happy religious, having contracted a passion for
a certain youth, agreed to flee with him from
the convent; and in fact she went one day before
a statue of the blessed Virgin, there deposited
the keys of the monastery, for she was portress,
and boldly departed. Arrived in another coun
try, she led the miserable life of a prostitute for
fifteen years. It happened that she met, one day,
the agent of the monastery in the city where she
was living, and asked of him, thinking he would
not recognize her again, if he knew sister Bea
trice? "I knew her well," he said: "she is a
holy nun, and at present is mistress of novices."
At this intelligence she was confounded and
amazed, not knowing how to understand it. In
order to ascertain the truth, she put on another
dress and went to the monastery. She asked for
eister Beatrice, and behold, the most holy Virgin
appeared before her in the form of that same
image to which at parting she had committed

her keys, and her dress, and the divine mother
thus spoke to her: "Beatrice, be it known to
thee that, in order to prevent thy disgrace, I
assumed thy form, and have filled thy office for
the fifteen years that thou hast lived far from
the monastery and from God. My child, return,
and do penance, for my Son is still waiting for
thee; and strive by thy holy life to preserve the
good name I have gained thee." She spoke thus
and disappeared Beatrice re-entered the. mon
astery, resumed the habit of a religious, and,
grateful tor the mercj of Mary, led the life of a
gaint. At her death she made known the fore
going incident, to the glory of this great queen.

PRAYER.

Oh great mother of my Lord, I now see that
the ingratitude shown by me for so many years
to God and to thee, would justly merit that thou
shouldst abandon all care of me, for the ungrate
ful are no more worthy of favors. But, oh Lady,
I have a great idea of thy goodness; I believe it
to be far greater than my ingratitude; continue,
then, oh refugeof sinners, to help a miserable sin
ner who confides in thee. Oh mother of mercy, ex
tend thy hand to raise a poor fallen creature who
implores thy mercy. Oh Mary, defend thou me,
or tell me to whom I shall have recourse, and
who can protect me better than thou. Can I find
an advocate with God more merciful and more
powerful than thou, who art his mother? Thou
having been created for the mother of the Sar*

226 GLORIES OF MARY.

iour, art destined to save sinners, and hast been
given me for my salvation. Oh Mary, save him
who has recourse to thee. I do not merit thy
love, but the desire thou hast to save the lost
gives me the hope that thou dost love me; and
if thou lovest me, how can I be lost? Oh my
beloved mother, if, as I hope, I am saved by thee,
I will no longer be ungrateful; I will make
amends by perpetual praises and by all the affec*
tion of my soul for my past ingratitude, and will
make some return for the love thou bearest me.
In heaven, where thou reignest and wilt reign
forever, I will always joyfully sing thy mercies,
and forever I will kiss those loving hands that
have freed me from hell as often as I have deserv
ed it for my sins. Oh Mary, my liberator, my
hope, my queen, my advocate, my mother, I
love thee, I wish thee well, and will always love
thee. Amen, amen; thus I hope, so may it be.

SECTION III.

MARY 18 THE PEACE-MAKER BETWEEN SINNERS AND OOD.

THK grace of God is a treasure, very great and
most earnestly to be desired by every soul. It
is called by the Holy Spirit an infinite treasure,
since by means of divine grace we are raised to
the honor of being made the friends of God: "She
is an infinite treasure to men, which they that
use become the friends of God."* Whence it is

that Jesus, our Redeemer and God, did not hesi
tate to call those who are in grace, his friends:
You are my friends: "Vos amici mei estis."*
Oh accursed sin that loosens the ties of this bless
ed friendship: Your iniquities have divided
between you and your God:"f for they make the
soul hateful to God, and from a friend it becomes
an enemy of the Lord: " To God the wicked and
his wickedness are hateful alike."! What, then,
must a sinner do who finds himself so unhappy
as to have become an enemy of God? He must
find a mediator who will obtain pardon for him
and enable him to recover the lost friendship of
God. Take courage, says St. Bernard, oh sinner,
who has lost God. Thy Lord himself hath
given thee a mediator, even his Son Jesus Christ
who can obtain for thee whatever thou de-
*irest.

But, oh God, the saint here exclaims, why
do men esteem severe this most merciful Sav
iour, who hath given his life for our salvation?
Why do they look upon him as terrible who is
all loveliness? Distrustful sinners, say, why do
you fear? If you fear because you have offend
ed God, remember that Jesus with his own
lacerated hands has nailed your sins to the cross,

and having satisfied the divine justice for them
by his death, he has removed them from your
soul.* But if ever, adds the saint, you fear to
have recourse to Jesus Christ because his divine
majesty alarms you, since when he became man
he did not cease to be God, if you ever wish
for another advocate with this mediator, invoke
Mary, for she will intercede for you with the
Son, who will surely graciously listen to ner, and
the Son will intercede with the Father, who can
refuse nothing to this Son.f And so, concludes
St. Bernard, this divine mother, oh my children,
is the ladder of sinners, by which they ascend
anew to the height of divine grace. This is my
greatest confidence this is the whole ground
of my hope.J

Let us hear what the Holy Spirit makes the
blessed Virgin say in the sacred Canticles: I
am, says Mary, the defence of those who have re
course to me, and my mercy is to them a tower of
refugejfor this I have been appointed by my Lord
as a peacemaker between sinners and him. Car
dinal Hugo, on the same text, says, that Mary is

lire" great peacemaker who obtains from God,
and gives peace to enemies, salvation to the lost,
pardon to sinners, and mercy to the despairing.*
For this reason she was called by her divine
spouse: Beautiful as the curtains of Solomon:
Formosa sicut pelles Salomonis."f In the
tents of David there was nothing treated of
but war, but in the tents of Solomon peace alone
was spoken of. The Holy Spirit giving us to
understand by this, that the mother of mercy
does not treat of war and of vengeance against
sinners, but only of peace and the pardon of
their offences.

Again, Mary was prefigured by Noe s dove,
who returned to the ark bearing in her beak
the olive-branch, as a sign of the peace which
God granted to men. Wherefore St. Bonaven-
tur says: Thou art that most faithful dove, which,
mediating with God, hath obtained for the world,
which was lost, peace and salvation. Mary,
then, was the heavenly dove who brought to
the lost world the olive-branch, a sign of mercy ;J
for she gave us Jesus Christ, who is the foun
tain of mercy, and thus obtained, by the
price of his merits, all the graces which God

gives us. And as through Mary the world re
ceived celestial peace,* as St. Epiphanius says,
o by means of Mary sinners are constantly be
coming reconciled to God. In the same way,
the blessed Albert us Magnus says in her name:
I am that dove of Noe, who brought to the
Church universal peace.f

Moreover, the rainbow seen by St. John, that
urrounded the throne of God, was also an exact
type of Mary.J According to the explanation
of Cardinal Vitalis, Mary is always before the
divine tribunal to mitigate the sentence and
punishment due to the sinner. And St. Ber-
nardine of Sienna says, that it was of this rain
bow that the Lord spoke, when he said to Noe
that he would place in the clouds the bow of
peace, that when he should see it he might re
member the eternal covenant that he had estab
lished with men. || And Mary, says St. Bernar-
dine, is that very bow of eternal peace.!" For as
God, at the sight of the bow, remembers the
peace promised to the earth, thus at the pray
ers of Mary he pardons sinners the offences com-

For the same reason Mary is also compared
to the moon.f For, St. Bonaventure says, as
the moon is in the midst between heaven and
earth, so she continually interposes between God
and sinners, that she may appease the Lord tow
ards them, and enlighten them on their return to
God.t

And this was the most important office given
to Mary when she was placed upon the earth
of lifting the souls fallen from divine grace, and
reconciling them to God. Feed thy kids:
" Pasce hsedos tuos. " This was said to her
by the Lord when he created her. It is well
known that sinners are represented by goats;
and as the elect, represented by sheep, wifl be
placed on the right hand in the valley of
judgment, the goats will be placed on the left.
Now these goats, says William of Paris, are
committed to thee, oh great mother, that thou
mayest change them into sheep, and that those
who, by their sins, have merited to be banished
to the left, by thy intercession may be placed on
the right.] Hence the Lord revealed to St.

Catherine of Sienna that he had created this hia
beloved child as a sweet bait, that would draw
men, and especially sinners, to God.* And here
we should note the beautiful reflection of Wil
liam, the Englishman, on the passage above cited,
who says, that God recommends to Mary her
own goats, "hsedos tuos;" because the Virgin
does not save all sinners, but only those who
serve and honor her. Those, on the contrary,
who live in sin, and do not honor her with any
special devotion, neither recommend themselves
to her in order to escape from their sins, are not
the goats of Mary, but in the judgment will be
placed miserably on the left among the damned.f
A certain nobleman who was despairing of his
eternal salvation on account of his sins, was
encouraged by a religious to have recourse to
the most holy Virgin, by visiting her sacred
image which was in a certain church. The
nobleman went to the church, and on seeing the
figure of Mary he felt himself, as it were, invited
by her to cast himself at her feet and trust.
He hastens to do so, kisses her feet, and Maiy,
from that statue, extended her hand for him to

kiss, and on it he saw these words written: "I
will deliver thee from them that afflict thee." *
As if she had said to him: My son, do not
despair, for 1 will deliver thee from thy sins,
and from the fears that oppress thee. It is re
lated that on reading these sweet words, that
sinner felt such sorrow for his sins, and conceived
such a love for God, and for his sweet mother f
that he died there at the feet of Mary. Oh, how
many obstinate sinners does this magnet of
hearts draw daily to God, as she herself said to
St. Bridget: "As the magnet attracts to itself
iron, thus I draw to myself the most obdurate
hearts, that I may reconcile them to God;f"
and this prodigy is not rarely, but daily ex
perienced. I could myself testify to many cases
that have occurred in our missions alone, where
sinners who have remained harder than iron
during all other sermons, while hearing that on
the mercy of Mary, were touched with com
punction, and turned to God. St Gregory re
lates that the unicorn is so ferocious a wild
beast, that no hunter can succeed in taking it;
but at the voice of a maiden who calls upon him
to surrender, he draws near, and without resist
ance allows himself to be bound by her. Oh,
how many sinners, more fierce than wild beasts,
who flee from God, at the sound of the voice of
this great Virgin Mary, advance and allow them
selves to be gently bound by her to God!

* Ego eripiam te de affiigentibus te.

t Sicnt magnes attrahit ferrum sic ego attiaho dura oorda* L. ^

GLORIES OF MARY.

fc

For this end, says St. John Chrysoitom, the
Virgin Mary was made mother of God, that
those sinners who, by reason of their wicked
life, could not be saved according to the divine
justice, might obtain salvation through her sweet
compassion and powerful intercession.* St.
Anselm confirms this when he says that Mary
has been exalted to be mother of God for sin
ners rather than for the just, since Jesus Christ
announced that he came not to call the just,
but sinners.f And so the holy Church sings:
"Sinners thou dost not abhor, since but for them
thou never wouldst have been worthy of such
a Son "J William of Paris also says: Oh Mary,
thou art obliged to help sinners, since for all
the gifts, graces, and honors thou dost possess,
which are comprehended in the dignity thou
hast received of being the mother of God, for
all, if I may so speak, thou art indebted to sin
ners, since for their sakes thou wert made
worthy to have a God for thy Son. If, then,
concludes St. Anselm, Mary, for the sake of
sinners, has been made mother of God, ho wean

The holy Church teaches us, in the collect of
the Mass for the Vigil of the Assumption, thai
the divine mother has been removed from
this earth that she might intercede for us with
God, in sure confidence of being graciously
heard.f Hence Mary is named by St. Justin
ian, Arbitress: "Sequestra." The Word em
ployed as arbitress.J Sequester signifies the
same as arbiter, one to whom two contending
parties refer all their questions; so that the
saint means to say, that as Jesus is mediator
with the eternal Father, so Mary is our media
trix with Jesus, to whom the Son refers all the
charges which, as judge he has against us.

Mary is called by St. Andrew of Crete, the
confidence and security of our reconciliation
with God. And by this the saint intends to
say, that God seeks a reconciliation with sinneri
by pardoning them, and that they may not de
spair of pardon, he has given them Mary as a
pledge of it; hence he salutes her: Hail, oh
peace of God with men; "Salve divina homin-

ibus reconciliatio." Wherefore St. Bonaven
ture says, encouraging every sinner: If thou
f earest, on account of thy sins, that an angry
God may wish to avenge himself upon thee,
what art thou to do? Go to the hope of sinners,
namely, Mary; and if thou f earest that she will
refuse to take thy part, know that she cannot
refuse to defend thy cause, for God himself has
assigned her the office of relieving the wretched.*
And what does the Abbot Adam say? Should
a sinner fear being lost, to whom the mother
of his judge offers herself as his mother and ad-
vocate?f And then the same writer adds: Oh
Mary! who art mother of mercy, couldst thou
refuse to pray thy Son, who is judge, for another
son, who is the criminal? Canst thou refuse to
intercede in behalf of a redeemed soul with the
Redeemer, w r ho, for no other end than to save
sinners, died on the cross?J No, thou wilt not
refuse, but earnestly wilt employ thyself in
praying for all those who invoke thee, well
knowing that the same Lord who hath consti
tuted thy Son mediator of peace between God
and man, has at the same time made thee media
trix between the Judge and the criminal, Here

St. Bernard takes up the subject, and says: Give
then thanks to him who has provided thee with
guch a mediatrix.* Whoever thou art, oh sin
ner, plunged in the mire of guilt, hoary in sin, do
not despair; thank thy Lord, who in order to
show mercy to thee, has not only given thee
his Son for an advocate, but, to increase thy
confidence and courage, has provided thee with
such a mediatrix, who, by her prayers, obtains
whatever she wishes. Have recourse to Mary,
and thou wilt be saved.

EXAMPLE.

It is related by Rupensis,f and by Boniface,J
that in Florence there lived a young girl, named
Benedetta (the blessed), although she might bet
ter have been called Maladetta (the cursed), from
the scandalous and wicked life she led. Hap
pily for her, St. Dominic happened to preach in
that city, and she, from mere curiosity, went one
day to hear him. But the Lord touched her
heart during the sermon, so that, weeping bit
terly, she went to make her confession .to the
saint. St. Dominic heard her confession, gave her
absolution, and directed her to say the rosary.
But the unhappy girl, by the force of her evil
habits, returned to her wicked life. The saint
heard of it, and going to her, induced her to con-

fees once more. God, in order to confirm hef
in her good life, one day showed hell to her, and
some persons there who had been already con
demned on her account. Then opening a book,
AQ made her read in it the frightful record of
her sins. The pentitent shuddered at the sight,
and, full of confidence, had recourse to Mary,
asked her help, and learned that this divine
mother had already obtained from God for her
time enough to mourn for her numerous sins.
The vision disappeared, and Benedetta devoted
herself to a good life; but seeing always open
before her eyes that dark catalogue, she one day
prayed in these words to her consoler: "Oh
mother, it is true that for my sins I should now
be deep in hell; but since thou, by thy interces
sion, hast liberated me from it, by obtaining for
me time for repentance, most merciful Lady, I
ask of thee one other favor. I will never cease
to weep for my sins; but do thou obtain for me
that they may be cancelled from that book."
After this prayer, Mary appeared to her, and
told her that in order to obtain what she asked,
she must preserve an eternal remembrance of
her sins, and of the mercy of God towards her;
and still more, that she must meditate on the
passion of her Son, which he suffered for love of
her; and also that she must bear in mind that
many had been damned who had committed fewer
sins than she had done. She also revealed
her that a child of only eight years of age, fof
one mortal sin only, had been that day condemn

GLORIES OF MARY. 23i

ed to hell. Benedetta having faithfully obeyed
the most holy Virgin, one day beheld Jesus Christ,
who showed her that book, and said to her: Be
hold, thy sins are cancelled; the book is white,
inscribe on it now acts of love and of virtue.
Benedetta did this, led a holy life, and died a
holy death.

PBATEB.

Then, oh my most sweet Lady, if thy office
is, as William of Paris eays, to interpose as a
mediatrix between the sinner and God,* I will
ay to thee with St. Thomas of Villanova: Ah,
then, oh ou? advocate, fulfil thy office.f Fulfil
at once thy office also in my behalf. Do not
tell me that my cause is too difficult to be gained;
for I know, and all tell me, that no cause, how
ever desperate, if defended by thee, was ever lost;
and will mine be lost? No, I fear not this. I
have only to fear, when I behold the multitude
of my sins, that thou wilt not undertake my
defence; but considering thy vast compassion and
the great desire that fills thy most loving heart
to help the vilest sinners, I no longer fear even
this. And who was ever lost that had recourse
to thee? I invoke, then, thy aid, oh my great
advocate, my refuge, my hope, and my mother
Mary. To thy hands T commit the cause of my
eternal salvation. To thee I consign my soul;

it was lost, but thou must save it. I alwayi
thank the Lord that he gives me this great
confidence in thee, which, notwithstanding my
unworthiness, I believe will secure my salva
tion. One fear alone remains to afflict me, my
beloved queen: it is, that I may one day lose,
through my neglect, this confidence in thee.
Therefore I pray thee, oh Mary, by all thy love
for thy Jesus, to preserve and increase more
and more in me this most sweet confidence in
thy intercession, by which I certainly hope to
recover the divine friendship, which I have
hitherto so foolishly despised and lost; and once
having recovered it, I hope by thy means to
preserve il; and preserving it, I hope finally
through thee to go one day and thank thee for
it in paradise, and there to sing the mercies of
God and thine through all eternity. Amen,
Thus I hope, so may it be, and so it shall be!

GLORIES OF MARY., 241

CHAPTER VII.

RLLO9 TUOS MISERICORDES OCULOS AD N08 COK-
* VERTE.

Turn thy eyes of mercy towards us.
SECTION I.

MARY IS ALL EYES TO PITY AND RELIEVE OUR MISERIES.

ST. EPIPHANIUS calls the blessed Virgin,
"Multoculam ;" that is, one who has many eyes,
that she may relieve our miseries on this earth.
One day, when a person possessed was being
exorcised, the devil was asked by the exorcist
what Mary was then doing. The Evil One
replied: She is descending and ascending;"*
by which he intended to say, that this gracious
Lady does nothing else than descend upon the
earth to bring graces to men, and ascend to
heaven to obtain there the divine blessing on our
supplications. Rightly, then, was the holy
Virgin named by St. Andrew of Avellino, the
active power of paradise; for she is contin
ually employed in deeds of mercy, imploring
favors for all, for the just and for sinners.
"The eyes of the Lord are upon the just," says
David;fbut the eyes of our Lady are upon the

Ap. 51 P. Pep. to. 5, Lee. 235.

t Oculi Domini super justos. Ps. xxxiii. 16.

248 GLORIES OF MARY.

juat and upon sinners,* as Richard of Si.
Laurence says; for he adds: The eyes of Mary
are the eyes of a mother; and the mother not
only guards her child from falling, but if he
falls, she hastens to raise him.f

Jesus himself revealed this to St. Bridget,
whom the saint heard one day speaking
to his mother, and saying: "Ask of me, oh my
mother, whatever thou dost desire^ J and the
Son is always in heaven saying this to Mary,
pleased with granting his beloved mother what
ever she asks. But what does Mary ask? St.
Bridget understood the mother to answer him:
I ask mercy for sinners: "Misericordiam peto
pro miseris." As if she would say, my Son,
thou hast already destined me for the mother
of mercy, for the refuge of sinners,for the ad
vocate of the miserable, now thou sayest to me
that I may ask whatever I wish; but what
would I ask of thee? I ask of thee that thou
wilt have mercy on the sinner: "Misericor-
diam peto pro miseris." Thou art, oh Mary,
so full of compassion, St. Bonaventure tenderly
Bays to her, thou art so watchful to relieve the
wretched, that it seems thou hast no other desire,
too other concern than this.) And because, among
the wretched sinners are the most wretched of

all, the venerable Bede affirms, that Mary is
continually praying the Son in behalf of sin
ners.*

Even whilst on earth Mary was so kind and
tender to men that, as St. Jerome says, there
never was any person so afflicted by his own
Bufferings as Mary by the sufferings of others.f
She plainly showed the compassion she feels for
the sufferings of others at the nuptials of Cana
(as has been mentioned in previous chapters),
where, as when the wine failed, without being re
quested, as St. Bernardine of Sienna remarks,
she assumed the office of a kind comforter.J
And from mere compassion for the troubles of
that family, she interceded with her Son, and
obtained the miracle of changing the water into
Wine.

But, perhaps, says St. Peter Damian, since
thou wast exalted to the dignity of queen of
heaven, thou hast forgotten the wretched; and
then he adds, let this never be thought of it does
not belong to a mercy so great as that which
reigns in the heart of Mary, to forget such mis
ery as ours. The common proverb, honors
change customs, "Honores mutant mores, * cer
tainly does not apply to Mary. It, indeed,

applies to worldlings who, when raised to
dignity, become inflated with pride, and forget
their old and poor friends: but not to Mary, who
rejoices in her greater exaltation, because it
gives her more power to assist others. Consider
ing this point, St. Bonaventure applies to the
blessed Virgin the words spoken to Ruth."
Blessed art thou, my daughter, and thy latter
kindness has surpassed the former." * Meaning,
as he afterwards explains, that if the pity of
Mary for the unhappy was great when she lived
on earth, much greater is it now when she is
reigning in heaven. f The saint gives the reason
for this by saying, that the divine mother showa
now, by the innumerable favors she obtains for
us, this her increased compassion, because now
she better understands our miseries, J And he
adds, that as the splendor of the sun exceeds
that of the moon, so the mercy of Mary, now
that she is in heaven, exceeds the mercy she had
for us when she was upon the earth, And is
there any one living on the earth who does not
enjoy the light of the sun? any one on whom
this mercy of Mary does not shine? ]

On this account she is called bright as the sun,
"Electa ut sol;"* because no one is shut out
from the heat of this sun,f as St. Bonaventure
says. And St. Agnes revealed this from heaven
to St. Bridget, when she said to her, that our
queen, now that she is united with her Son in
heaven, cannot forget her innate goodness;
hence she exercises her compassion towards all,
even towards the most impious sinners, so that
as both the celestial and terrestrial bodies are
illuminated by the sun, thus through the good
ness of Mary, there is no one in the world who
does not, if he asks for it, share in the divine
raercy.J A great and desperate sinner, in the
kingdom of Valencia, in order to escape justice,
had resolved to become a Turk, and was actually
going to embark, when by chance he passed a
church, in which Father Jerome Lopez, of the
Company of Jesus, was preaching, and preach
ing of the divine mercy; by that preaching he
was converted, and confessed to the father, who
inquired of him if he had practised any devo
tion, for which God had shown towards him that
great mercy; he answered that he had practised
no other devotion than praying the holy Virgin
every day not to abandon him. The same

Father found in the hospital a sinner, who for
fifty-five years had never been to confession,
and had only practised this little devotion, that
when he saw an image of Mary he saluted it,
and prayed to her that he might not die in mor
tal sin; and then he related that in a quarrel
with an enemy, his sword was broken, and he
turned to the Madonna, saying: "Alas, I shall
be slain, damned; oh mother of sinners, help
me." When he had said this, he found himself,
he knew not how, transported into a secure place.
He made a general confession, and died full of
confidence.*

St. Bernard writes that Mary becomes all
things to all men, and opens to all the bowels
of her mercy, that all may receive of her; the
captive his freedom; the sick man health; the
afflicted consolation; the sinner pardon, and
God glory: hence there is no one, since she is the
sun, who does not partake of her warmth.f
And is there any one in the world, exclaims St.
Bonaventure, who will not love this lovely queen?
She is more beautiful than the sun, and sweet
er than honey; she is a treasure of goodness,
and is kind and courteous to all.J I salute thee,

then, thus the enamored saint goes on to say,
oh my Lady and mother! my heart! my soul!
Pardon me, oh Mary, if I say that I love thee:
if I am not worthy of loving thee, thoa art
truly worthy of being loved by me.*

It was revealed to St. Gertrude,f that when
any one repeats with devotion these words to
the Virgin: "Turn, then, towards us, oh our acU
vocate, thy pitying eyes,"J Mary never fails to
listen to the prayer. Oh, let the immensity of
thy mercy, oh great Lady, fill the whole earth,
exclaims St. Bernard. Whence St. Bonaven-
ture says, that this loving mother has such a de
sire to do good to all, that she feels herself of
fended not only by those who offer her some
positive injury, for there are souls to be found
so perverse, especially gamesters, who sometimes,
to vent their anger, blaspheme and insult this
good Lady, but she looks upon herself as injured
by those, also, who neglect to ask of her some
favor. I So that, as St. Idelbert says, thou dost
instruct us, oh Lady, to expect favors greater
than our merits, for thou dost never cease to dish

pense graces that far exceed what we merit.*
The prophet Isaias predicted that by the great
work of human redemption, a great throne of
divine mercy would be prepared for us: "A throne
shall be prepared in mercy. "f Who is this
throne? St. Bonaventure answers: This throne
is Mary, in whom all, both the just and sinners,
find the consolations of mercy ;J and he afterwards
adds: As the Lord is full of compassion, so
also is our Lady; and as the Son, so the mother
cannot withhold her mercy from those who ask
it. Hence Guerric, the abbot, represents Jesus
thus speaking to Mary: My mother, wpon thee I
will establish the seat of my kingdom, for
through thee will I bestow the graces that are
asked of me: thou hast given me the human na
ture; I will give to thee, as it were, a divine na
ture, that is, my omnipotence, by which thou
canst assist all who invoke thee to obtain their
8alvation.||

peating these words to the divine mother: Turn
towards us thy merciful eyes," she saw the Vir
gin pointing to the eyes of her Son whom she
held in her arms, and she said to her; "These
are the most merciful eyes that I can turn tow
ards all those who invoke me for their salva
tion."* A sinner once weeping before the
altar of Mary, and imploring her to intercede
with God for his pardon, was given to under
stand that the blessed Virgin turned to the
child whom she held in her arms, and said to
him: "My son, shall these tears be in vain?"f an( ^
he learned that Jesus Christ at once pardoned
him.

And how can any one ever perish who recom
mends himself to this good mother, when the
Son, as God, has promised, for love of her, to
exercise mercy, as far as it pleases her, towards
all those that have recourse to her? Precisely
this our Lord revealed to St. Bridget; per
mitting her to hear these words which he spoke
to Mary: "By my omnipotence, venerated moth
er, I have granted thee the pardon of all sin
ners, in whatever way it pleases thee, who de
voutly invoke the aid of thy mercy. "{ Hence
the Abbot Adam Persenius, considering the
great compassion that Mary has for all, full of

confidence says to her: Oh mother of mercy, thy
power is as great as thy pity. As thou art
powerful to obtain, so thou art merciful to
pardon.* And when, he adds, dost thou ever
fail to have compassion on sinners, being the
mother of mercy; or art thou unable to help them,
being mother of omnipotence? Ah, thou canst as
readily obtain whatever thou wilt, as thou canst
listen to our woes.f Satiate thyself, then, says
the Abbot Rupert, satiate thyself, oh great
queen, with the glory of thy Son, and through
thy compassion, not certainly through our merit,
be pleased to send down to us, thy poor ser
vants here below, whatever fragments may re-
main.J

If our sins ever throw us into despair, let us
say with William of Paris: Oh Lady, do not bring
forward my sins against me, for I shall bring
forward thy mercy in opposition to them. And
let it never be said that my sins can rival, in
the judgment, thy mercy, which is more pow
erful to obtain my pardon, than my sins are to
obtain my condemnation.g

We read in the chronicles of the Capuchin
Fathers,* that there lived in Venice a celebrated
advocate, who, by fraud and evil practices, had
become rich c His whole life was very bad, and
it appears that he had but one good habit, that
of reciting every day a certain prayer to the
holy Virgin. Yet, even this little devotion saved
him from eternal death, through the mercy of
Mary. It happened in this way: Happily for
himself, he had a great esteem for Father Mat
thew da Basso, and urged him so much to come
and dine at his house., that one day the Father
gave him this pleasure. Having arrived, the
advocate said to him? "Now, Father, I will show
you something that you have never seen. I
have a wonderful ape, who is my valet, washes
my glasses, lays the table, and opens the door."
"This may not be an ape," answered the Father:
"it may be something more than an ape; order
him to come here." The ape was called again
and again, search was made for him everywhere,
and he could not be found. At length, he was
discovered hidden under a bed in the lower part
of the house, but he would not come out.
"Come, then," said the religious, "let us go and
ee him:" and he went with the advocate to his
hiding-place. "Infernal beast," he said, "come
forth, and in the name of God I command you

*C.ll t p.L

252 GLORIES OP MAEY.

to tell me what you are." And behold, the ap
answered that he was the devil, and that he was
waiting until that sinner should omit some day
to recite his accustomed prayer to the mother of
God; for the first time he should omit it, God
had given him leave to strangle him ? and take
him to hello At these words the advocate cast
himself upon his knees to ask help of the servant
of God, who encouraged him, and commanded
the devil to depart from that house without com
mitting any injury, only he gave him permission,
as a sign that he had really gone, to break a
piece of the wall. Scarcely had he finished
speaking, when, with a great crash, a hole was
made in the wall, which, although it was several
times closed with stone and mortar, God willed
that it should remain open for a long time; un
til, by the advice of the servant of God, it was
filled up with a slab of marble, with an angel
carved on it. The advocate was converted, and,
it is to be hoped, persevered until death in his
new course of life.

PRAYER.

Oh creature, among all others the greatest and
most sublime, most holy Virgin, I from this earth
salute thee; I, a miserable, unhappy rebel to my
God, who deserve punishment and not favors,
justice and riot mercy. Oh Lady, I do not say
this because I distrust thy mercy. I know that
thou dost glory m being merciful as thou art

GLORIES OP MARY, 26$

great. I know that thou dost rejoice in being
so rich, that thou inayest share thy richea
with us sinners. I know that the more wretch-
ed are those who seek thee the greater is
thy desire to help and save them. Oh my
mother, it is thou who once did weep for
thy Son when lie died for me. Offer, I pray
thee, thy tears to God, and with these obtain for
me a true sorrow for my sins. So much did sin
ners grieve thee, then, and so much did I, too,
grieve thee by my iniquities. Obtain for me, oh
Mary, that I at least from henceforth may no
longer continue to afflict thee and thy Son by
my ingratitude. What will thy tears avail me if
I should continue to be ungrateful to thee?
What would thy mercy avail me if I should
again be faithless and be lost? Ko, my queen,
do not permit it. Thou hast supplied all my
deficiencies; thou canst obtain from God what
ever thou wilt; thou graciously nearest every one
that prays to thee. These two favors do I ask
of .thee, and at all events from thee do I hope
and desire them: namely, that thou wilt obtain
for me to be faithful to God by never more
offending him, and to love him as much as I have
offended him during the life that remains to mt.

And after this our exile, show us the blessed fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.

SECTION I.

MARY RESCUES HER SERVANTS FROM HELL.

IT is impossible that a servant of Mary
who faithfully honors her and recommends him
self to her should be lost. This proposition
at first sight may appear to some persons
extravagant. But I would beg them not to
condemn it before reading what will hereafter
be said on this point. When it is said that a
devoted servant of Mary cannot be lost, those
servants are not intended who abuse their de
votion by sinning with less fear. Therefore it
is unjust to say, as some do who disapprove ex
tolling the mercy of Mary to sinners, that by so
doing they are encouraged to sin the more; for
,iuch presumptuous persons for their presump
tion merit punishment and not mercy. It is un
derstood, then only of those of her servants
who, with the desire to amend, faithfully honor
and commend themselves to the mother of God.
That these should be lost is, I say, morally

GLORIES OF MARY. 151

impossible. And I find Father Crasset has
affirmed the same thing in his book upon de
votion to Maryland before him Vega,f Men-
doza,| and other theologians. And that we
may know that they have not spoken unadvis
edly, let us see what the Doctors and Saints have
said on this subject. Let no one be surprised if
I here quote several sentences, of different
authors, containing the same thing; for I have
wished to record them all, in order to show
how unanimously all waters agree on this
point. St. Anselm says, that as he who is not
devoted to Mary and protected by her cannot
be saved, so it is impossible that he should be
condemned who recommends himself to the
Virgin, and is regarded by her with affection.
St. Antoninus asserts the same thing in nearly
the same words: As it is impossible that those
from whom Mary turns away her eyes of com
passion should be saved, so it must be that all
those towards whom she turns her eyes, and
for whom she intercedes, shall be saved and
glorified.|| This saint adds, then, that the
servants of Mary must necessarily be saved.

Let us note, however, the first part of the
statement of these saints, and let those trembl*
who little esteem, or abandon, through negli
gence, devotion to this divine mother. They say
that it is impossible for those to be saved who
are not protected by Mary. And this is also as
sented by others, as the blessed Albertus Magnus:
All those who are not thy servants, oh Mary,
shall perish: "Gens quse non servierit tibi peri-
bit."* St. Bonaventure, too: He who neglects
the service of Mary (Shall die in sin.f And in
another place: He who has not recourse to thee,
oh Lady, will not reach paradise. J And on
Psalm xcix. the saint goes so far as to say that
those from whom Mary turns away her face, not
only will not be saved, but can have no hope of
salvation. And before this St. Ignatius, the
martyr, said the same thing, asserting that a sin
ner cannot be saved except by means of the holy
Virgin, who, on the other hand, saves by her
merciful intercession many that would be con
demned by the divine justice. [ Some persons
ddubt whether this passage is from St.
Ignatius; at least Father Crasset saya that
St. John Chrysostom has adopted it

as his own.* It is also repeated by the Abbot of
Celles.f And in the same sense the-holy Church
applies to Mary these words of Proverbs: All
that hate me love death: "Omnes qui me oder-
unt, diligunt mortem t "J For, as Richard of St.
Laurence says, commenting on the words: She
is like the merchant s ship : all those who are
out of this ship shall be submerged in the sea of
this world.|| Even the heretic CEcolampadius
esteemed neglect of devotion in any one to the-
mother of God as a certain sign of reprobation;
hence, he said : Let it never be heard of me that I
am averse to Mary, to be ill affected towardi
whom I should think a certain sign of a repr
bate mind.T

On the other hand, Mary says: He that heark-
eneth to me shall not be confounded.** He who
has recourse to me, and listens to what I say to
him, shall not be lost. From which St. Bonaven-
ture said: Oh, Lady, those who are mindful to
honor thee, shall be far from perdition.f f Even

Hence the devil strives so hard with sinners,
in order that, having lost divine grace, they may
also lose devotion to Mary. Sarah, seeing Isaac
playing with Ishmael, who was teaching him evil
habits, asked Abraham to send him away, and
his mother Agar also: Cast out this bond-woman
and her son."f She was not satisfied that the
son alone should leave the house without
the mother, fearing lest the son would come to
yisit his mother, and thus continue to frequent
the house. In like manner, the devil is not sat
isfied with seeing Jesus cast out from a soul, if he
does not see the mother also cast out: "Cast out
this bond- woman and her son." Otherwise he fears
that the mother, by her intercession, may again
obtain the return of her son. And he has cause
to fear, for as the learned Father Paciucchelli
remarks: He who is faithful in honoring the
mother of God, through Mary, will soon receive
him.J Therefore rightly was the devotion to
our Lady called by St. Ephreni: The passport of
escape from hell: "Charta libertatis." The di
vine mother was also named by him: The pro
tectress of the condemned ;"Patrocinatrix damna-
toruin." And with truth St. Bernard says, that

Mary is neither wanting in the power nor the
will to save us.* Not in the power, because it
is impossible that her prayers should not be heard,
as St Antoninus asserts ;f and St. Bonaventure
nays also, that her requests cannot be unavailing,
but obtain for her what she wishes: Quod quse-
rit invenit et frustrari non potest.J JSTot in the
will to save us, for Mary is our mother, and de
sires our salvation more than we desire it our
selves. If this is then true, how can it ever hap
pen that a servant of Mary should be lost? He
may be a sinner, but if, with perseverance and at
desire for amendment, he commends himself to
this good mother, she will take care to obtain for
him light to guide him out of his bad state, con
trition for his sins, perseverance in goodness, and
finally a good death. And is there any mother
who would not rescue her child from death, if
she could do it by praying his judge for mercy?
And can we belive that Mary, the most loving
mother possible to her servants, would fail to
rescue one of them from eternal death, when aha
can do it so easily?

Ah, devout reader, let us thank the Lord if we
find that he has given us the love of the queen of
heaven, and confidence in her; for God, as St.
John Damascene says, does not grant this grace
except to those whom he wishes to save. These

* Nee facnltas, Bee voltmtas illi deesse potest Serm. do Aff .

t Impossibile est Deiparam non exaudiri. P. 4, tit. 15, c. 17. v. 4.

$ Serm.. de Aquaed.

2CO GLORIES OP MARY.

the beautiful words of the saint, with which he
would quicken his own and our hope: Oh mother
of God, if I place my confidence in thee I shall he
saved. If I am under thy protection, I have
nothing to fear, because to be thy servant is to
have certain arms of salvation, which God only
grants to those whom he will save.* Hence
Erasmus thus salutes the Virgin: Hail, terror of
hell! hail, hope of Christians! confidence in thee
secures salvation. f

Oh, how much it grieves the devil to see a soul
persevering in its devotion to the divine mother!
"We read in the life of Father Alphonsus Alver-
ez, who had a special devotion to Mary, that
being in prayer, and finding himself tormented
by impure temptations with which the devil afflic
ted him, the enemy said to him: Quit thy de
votion to Mary, and I will cease to tempt thee.

The Lord revealed to St. Catherine of Sienna,
as we read in Blosius, that he, in his goodness,
had granted to Mary, from love to his only be
gotten Son, whose mother she is, that not even
one sinner, who commends himself devoutly to
her, should be the prey of hell.| The Prophet
David, too, prayed to be rescued from hell, for
the honor in which he held Mary: "I have loved,
oh Lord, the beauty of thy house; take not away

toy soul with the wicked."* He says of thy
house, "Domus tuae," because Mary was, in
deed, that house of God, which he himself,
when he became man, built on this earth for his
habitation, and for the place of his rest, as we
read in Proverbs: Wisdom hath built herself
a house.f No, he surely will not be lost, says
St. Ignatius, the martyr, who is constant in his
devotion to this virgin mother.J And this is
confirmed by St. Bonaventure, who says: Oh
Lady, those who love thee enjoy great peace in
this life, and in the other they shall not see
eternal death. No, for it never did, and never
will happen, as the devout Blosius assures us,
that an humble and constant servant of Mary
will be lost.]

Oh, how many would have been eternally
condemned, or remained in obstinacy, if Mary
had not interceded with her Son to exercise
mercy! Thus says Thomas a Kempis.^T And
it is the opinion of many doctors, especially of
St. Thomas, that the divine mother has obtain
ed from God a reprieve for many persons who
had even died in mortal sin, and their return to

life to do penance. "We have many example*
of this given by writers of good authority.
Among others, Flodoard, who lived about tht
ninth century, narrates, in his chronicles,*
that one Adelman, a deacon, who appeared to
be dead, was about to be buried, when he
returned to life, and said, that he had seen the
place in hell to which he had already been con
demned, but that, through the intercession of
the blessed Virgin, he had been sent back to
earth to do penance. Surius also relates, that a
Roman citizen, named Andrew, had died
without doing penance, and that Mary had ob
tained his return to life that he might procure
pardon. f Pelbart, moreover, relates, that in
*his time, when the Emperor Sigismund was
J crossing the Alps with his army, a voice was
heard, proceeding from a dead body, of which
only the bones remained, asking for confession,
and saying, that the mother of God, to whom
he had been devoted whilst he was a soldier,
had obtained for him that he should live in
those bones until he had made his confession.
Having confessed, he died.f These and similar
examples must not serve as encouragement for
some rash person who would live in sin, in the
hope that Mary would free him from hell, even
if he should die in sin ; for as it would be a
great folly to throw one s self into a well, in the

* Ap. Crass, to. 1, q. 12.

tL.l,c. 85.

$ Stellar. Cor. B. V. 1. 18, p. 2, a. 1.

GLORIES OF MJLKY. 263

hope that Mary would save us from death, be
cause the Virgin has rescued some persons under
similar circumstances; thus a greater folly would
it be for one to run the risk of dying in sin, on
the presumption that the holy Virgin would res
cue him from hell. But these examples should
serve to strengthen our confidence by the con
sideration, that if the intercession of this divine
mother could deliver those from hell even
those who have died in sin how much more will
it prevent those from falling into hell who in
life have recourse to her with the intention to
amend and serve her faithfully?

Then, oh our mother, let us say with St. Ger-
manus: What will becomeof us who are sinners,
but who wish to amend and have recourse to
thee, who art the life of Christians?* Let us,
oh Lady, hear what St. Anselm says of thee, that
he will not be lost for whom thou hast once offer
ed thy prayers. f Pray, then, for us, and we shall
be saved from hell. Who will tell me, says Rich
ard of Victor, that when I am presented at the
divine tribunal, the Judge will not be favorable
to me, if I shall have thee to defend my cause,
oh mother of mercy ?J And the blessed Henry
Buso declared, that he had placed his soul in the
care of Mary, and he said, that if the Judge wish
ed to condemn him, he would have the sentence

pass through the hands of Mary.* For lie hoped
that when the sentence of condemnation should
fall into the kind hands of the Virgin, its execu
tion would certainly be prevented. I ask and
hope the same for myself, oh my most holy
queen. Whence I will always repeat with St.
Bonaventure: Oh Lady, in theel have placed all
my hopes, therefore I securely hope not to be
lost, but safe in heaven to praise and love thee
forever.f

EXAMPLE.

In the year 1604 there lived in a city of Flanders
two young students, who, instead of attending
to their studies, gave themselves up to excesses
and dissipation. One night, having gone to the
house of a woman of ill fame, one of them, nam
ed Richard, after some time returned home, but
the other remained. Richard having gone home
was undressing to go to rest, when he remember
ed that he had not recited that day, as usual,
Borne "Hail Marys." He was oppressed with
sleep and very weary, yet he roftsed himself and
recited them, although without devotion, and
only half awake. He then went to bed, and hav
ing just fallen asleep, he heard a loud knocking
at the door, and immediately after, before he
had time to open it, he saw before him his com
panion, with a hideous and ghastly appearance.
"Who are you?" he said to him. "Do you not

kno^vme?" answered the other. "But what has
so changed you? you seem like a demon." "Alas!"
exclaimed this poor wretch, "I am damned."
"And how is this?" "Know," he said, "that
when I came out of that infamous house, a devil
attacked me and strangled me. My body lies
in the middle of the street, and my soul is in hell.
Know that my punishment would also have been
yours, but the blessed Virgin, on account ofthose
few Hail Marys said in her honor, has saved you.
Happy will it be for you, if you know how to
avail yourself of this warning, that the mother
of God sends you through me." After these
words he opened his cloak, showed the fire and
serpents that were consuming him, and then
disappeared. Then the youth, bursting into a
flood of tears, threw himself with his face on
the ground, to thank Mary, his deliverer, and
while he was revolving in his mind a change of
life, he hears the matin bell of a neighboring
Franciscan Monastery. "It is there," he ex
claimed, "that God calls me to do penance."
He went immediately to the convent to beg the
fathers to receive him. Knowing how bad his
life had been, they objected. But after he had
related the circumstance which had brought him.
there, weeping bitterly all the while, two of the
fathers went out to search in the street, and ac
tually found there the dead body of his com
panion, having the marks of strangulation, and
black as a coal. Whereupon the young man was
received. Richard from that time led an exem-

266 GLORIES OF MARY.

plary life. He went into India to preach the
faith; from thence passed to Japan, and finally
had the good fortune and received the grace of
dying a martyr for Jesus Christ, hy being burn
ed alive.*

PRATER.

Oh Mary!. oh my most dear mother! in what an
abyss of evil I should find myself, if thou, with
thy kind hand, hadst not so often preserved me!
Yea, how many years should I already have
been in hell, if thou, with thy powerful prayers,
hadst not rescued me! My grievous sins were
hurrying me there; divine justice had already
condemned me; the raging demons were waiting
to execute the sentence ; but thou didst appear, oh
mother, not invoked nor asked by me, and hast
saved me. Oh my dear deliverer, what return
can I make thee for so much grace and so much
love? Thou hast overcome the hardness of my
heart, and hast drawn me to love thee and con
fide in thee. And oh, into what an abyss of
evils I afterwards should have fallen, if thou,
with thy kind hand, hadst not so many timei
protected me from the dangers into which I was
on the brink of falling! Continue, oli my hope,
continue to save me from hell, but first of all
from the sins into which I might again fall.
Do not permit that I shall have to curse thee in
hell. My beloved Lady, I love thee, and how
an thy goodness endure to see one of thy eer-

* P. Alt Andrada de Bapt. Vlrg.

GLORIES OP MARY. 267

rants who loves thee, lost? Ah, obtain for me
the grace to be no longer ungrateful to thee and
to my God, who for love of thee hath granted
me so many favors. Oh Mary, what dost thou
gay to me? Shall I be lost? I shall be lost if I
leave thee. But who will any more venture to
forsake thee? Shall I ever forget thy love for
me? Thou, after God, art the love of my soul.
I dare live no longer without loving thee. I
bless thee! I love thee! and I hope that I shall al
ways love thee in time and in eternity, oh creat
ure most beautiful! most holy! most sweet!
most amiable of all creatures in this world!
Amen.

SECTION II.
MARY ASSISTS HER SERVANTS IN PURGATORY.

Too happy are the servants of this most kind
mother, since not only in this world they are
aided by her, but also in purgatory they are
assisted and consbled by her protection. For
succor being there more needed, because they
are in torment and cannot help themselves, so
much the more does this mother of mercy strive
to help them. St. Bernardine of Sienna says,
that in that prison of souls who are spouses of
Jesus Christ, Mary has a certain dominion and
plenitude of power to relieve them, as well as
deliver them from their pains.*

And, in the first place, as to relieving them,
the same saint, applying the words of Ecclesia8
ticus: I have walked in the waves of the sea:
"In fluctibus maris ambulavi," * adds, visiting
and relieving the necessities and sufferings of
my servants, who are my child ren.f St. Ber-
nardine says, that the pains of purgatory are
called waves, because they are transitory, unlike
the pains of hell, which never end: and they are
called waves of the sea, because they are very
bitter pains. The servants of Mary tormented
by those pains are often visited and succored by
her. See, then, how important it is, says
Novarino, to be a servant of this good Lady;
for she never forgets such when they are suffer
ing in those flames. And although Mary succors
all the souls in purgatory, yet she always obtains
more indulgences and alleviations for those who
have been especially devoted to her.J

This divine mother, in her revelations to St.
Bridget, said: "I am the mother of all the soula
in purgatory; and all the sufferings which they
merit for the sins committed in life are every
hour, while they remain there, alleviated in some
measure by my prayers." This kind mother

sometimes condescends even to enter into thai
holy prison, to visit and console these her afflict
ed children. I have penetrated into the bottom
of the deep: "Profundum abyssi penetravi," as
we read in Ecclesiasticus;* and St. Bonaventure,
applying these words, adds: I have penetrated
the depth of this abyss, that is, of purgatory, to
relieve by my presence those holy souls.f Oh,
how kind and beneficent is the holy Virgin to
those who are suffering in purgatory! says St.
Vincent Ferrer; through her they receive con
tinual consolation and refreshment.;);

And what other consolation have they in their
sufferings than Mary, and the help of this moth
er of mercy? St. Bridget one day heard Jesus
saying to his mother: "Thou art my mother,
thou art the mother of mercy, thou art the
consoler of those who are in purgatory. " And
the blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget,
that as a poor sick person, suffering and desert
ed on his bed, feels himself refreshed by some
word of consolation, so those souls feel them
selves consoled in hearing only her name.] The
name alone of Mary, a name of hope and salva-

tion, which these beloved children often invoke
in that prison, is for them a great comfort.
But, then, says Novarino, the loving mother,
on hearing herself invoked by them, adds her
prayers to God, by which these souls receive
comfort, and find their burning pains cooled aa
if by dew from heaven.*

But not only does Mary console and succor
her servants in purgatory; she also releases
them from this prison, and delivers them by her
intercession. From the day of her glorious
assumption, in which that prison is said to have
been emptied, f as Gerson writes; and Novarino
confirms this by saying, that many weighty
authors relate that Mary, when about to ascend
to paradise, asked this favor of her Son, that
she might take with her all the souls that were
then in purgatory ;J from that time, says Gerson,
the blessed Virgin has possessed the privilege
of freeing her servants from those pains. And
this also is positively asserted by St. Bernar-
dine, who says that the blessed Virgin has the
power of delivering souls from purgatory by
her prayers and the application of her merits,
especially if they have been devoted to her.

And Novarino says the same thing, believing
that by the merits of Mary, not only the
torments of these souls are assuaged, but also
abridged, the time of their purgation being
shortened by her intercession:* and for this it
is enough that she presents herself to pray for
them.

St. Peter Damian relates,f that a certain lady,
named Marozia, after death, appeared to her god
mother, and told her that on the day of the As
sumption of Mary she had been released by her
from purgatory, with a multitude of souls ex
ceeding in number the whole population of
Rome. St. Denis the Carthusian relates, that
on the festivals of the birth and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, Mary descends into purgatory, ac
companied by troops of angels, and releases
many souls from their torments.^ And Nova
rino believes that the same thing happens on
every solemn festival of the holy Virgin.

Every one has heard of the promise made by
Mary to Pope John, to whom she appeared, and

ordered him to make known to all those who
should wear the sacred scapular of Carmel, that
on the Saturday after their death they should be
released from purgatory. And this was proclaim
ed by the same pontiff, as Father Crasset re
lates,* in a bull which he published. It was
also confirmed by Alexander V., Clement VIL,
Pius V., Gregory XIII. , and Paul V., who, in
1612, in a bull said: "That Christians may pious
ly believe that the blessed Virgin will aid
by her continual intercession, by her merits and
special protection, after death, and principally
on Saturday, which is a day consecrated by the
Church to the blessed Virgin, the souls of the
members of the confraternity of holy Mary of
Mount Carmel, who shall have departed this
life in the state of grace, worn the scapular, ob
serving chastity according to their state of life,
recited the office of the Virgin, and if they have
not been able to recite it, shall have observed
the fasts of the Church, abstaining from flesh-
meat on Wednesdays, except on Christmas-day."
And in the solemn office of the feast of holy
Mary of Mount Carmel, we read that it is pious
ly believed, that the holy Virgin, with a moth
er s love consoles the members of the confrater
nity of Mount Carmel in purgatory, and by her
intercession conducts them to their heavenly
country.f

Why should we not also hope for the same
graces and favors, if we are devoted to this
good mother? And if with more special love
we serve her, why cannot we hope to obtain the
grace of going immediately after death to para
dise, without entering into purgatory? as we
read that the holy Virgin said to the blessed
Godfrey, through brother Abondo, in these
words: "Go and tell brother Godfrey to advance
in virtue, for thus he will be a child of my Son,
and mine also; and when his soul quits the body,
I will not permit it to go to purgatory, but I
will take it and present it to my Son."* And if
we would assist the holy souls in purgatory, let
us endeavor to remember tliem in all our pray
ers to the blessed Virgin, applying to them es
pecially the holy rosary, which procures for
them great relief, as we read in the following ex*
amp>le.

EXAMPLE.

Father Eusebius Nierembergh relates,! that
there lived in the city of Aragona a girl, named
Alexandra who, being noble and very beautiful,
was greatly loved by two young men. Through
jealousy, they one day fought and killed each
other. Their enraged relatives, in return, killed
the poor young girl, as the cause of so much
trouble, cut off her head, and threw her into a
well. A few days after, St. Dominic was pass
ing through that place, and, inspired by the

Lord, approached the well, and said: "Alexan
dra, come forth," and immediately the head of
the deceased came forth, placed itself on the
edge of the well, and prayed St. Dominic to hear
its confession. The saint heard its confession,
and also gave it communion, in presence of a
great concourse of persons who had assembled to
to witness the miracle. Then, St. Dominic or
dered her to speak and tell why she had receiv
ed that grace. Alexandra answered, that when
she was beheaded, she was in a state of mortal
sin, but that the most holy Mary, on account of
the rosary, which she was in the habit of recit
ing, had preserved her in life. Two days the
head retained its life upon the edge of the well,
in the presence of all, and then the soul went to
purgatory. But fifteen days after, the soul of
Alexandra appeared to St. Dominic, beautiful
and radiant as a star, and told him, that one of
the principal sources of relief to the souls in pur
gatory is the rosary which is recited for them;
and that, as soon as they arrive in paradise, they
pray for those who apply to them these power
ful prayers. Having said this, St. Dominic saw
that happy soul ascending in triumph to the
kingdom of the blessed.

PRAYER.

Oh Queen of heaven and of earth, oh mother
of the Lord of the world, oh Mary, creature most
great, most exalted, most amiable, it is true that
many on the earth do not love thee and do not

GLORIES OP MJLRY. 275

know tnee; but there are innumerable angels and
saints iu heaven who love and praise thee con
tinually. On this earth, too, how many souls
burn with love of thee, and live enamored of thy
goodness 1 Ah, if I, too, might love tnee, my
most lovely Lady! Oh, that I might always be
engaged in serving thee, in praising thee, in
honoring thee, and in striving to awak
en love of thee in others. A God hath been
enamored of thee, who, by thy beauty, if
I may so speak, hast drawn him from the bo
som of the eternal Father, to come upon the earth
and become man and thy Son; and I, a miserable
worm, shall I not be enamored of thee? Yes,
my most sweet mother, I also will love thee,
love thee much, and do all in my power to make
thee loved by others. Accept, then, oh Mary,
the desire I have to love thee, and help me to
fulfil it: I know that thy lovers are regarded
with much favor by thy God. Next to his own
glory, he desires nothing more than thy glory,
in seeing thee honored and loved by all. From
thee, oh Lady, I await all my blessings. Thou
must obtain the pardon of all my sins, thou must
obtain for me perseverance, succor in death, de
liverance from purgatory, in a word, thou must
conduct me to paradise. All this thy lovers
hope from thee, and they are not deceived. This
I also hope, who love thee with all my heart, and
above all things next to God,

276 GLORIES OF MAH7.

SECTION III.

MARY CONDUCTS HER SERVANTS TO PARADISE.

OH, what a signal inark of predestination have
the servants of Mary! The holy Church ap
plies to this divine mother the words of Ecole-
siasticus, and makes her say for the comfort of
her servants: "In all these I sought rest, and
I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord."*
Cardinal Hugo, commenting on this, remarks;
Blessed is lie in whose habitation the holy Vir
gin found rest : "Beatus in cujus domo beatae
Virgo requiem invenerit." Mary, through the
love she bears to all, seeks to make devotion to
her prevail in all hearts. Many do not receive
it or do not preserve it; blessed is he who receives
it and preserves it. In the inheritance of the
Lord will I abide ; that is, adds the learned Pa-
ciucchelli, in those who are the inheritance of
the Lord.f Devotion to the Virgin abides in all
those who are the inheritance of the Lord, that
is, who will be in heaven praising him eternally.
Mary continues in the passage above cited :
"He that made me, rested in my tabernacle, and
he said to me : Let thy dwelling be in Jacob,
and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in
my elect "J My Creator has condescended to

come and rest in my bosom, and has willed
that I should inhabit in the hearts of all the
elect, whom Jacob prefigured, and who are the
inheritance of the Virgin; and he has ordained
that devotion to me and confidence in me should
take root in the hearts of the elect.

Oh, how many would have failed of being
among the blessed in heaven, if Mary, by her pow
erful intercession, had not conducted them thith
er! "I made that in the heavens there should
rise light that never faileth;"* thus Cardinal
Hugo putsinto her mouth these words of the same
chapter of Ecclesiasticus: I have made to shine
in heaven as many eternal lights as I have de
voted servants. Whence the same author adds,
commenting on this text: Many saints are in
heaven by her intercession, whenever would have
been there without it.f St Bonaventure says,
that the gate of heaven will be opened to re
ceive all those who trust in the protection of
Mary.J Hence St. Ephrem called devotion to
the divine mother the opening of paradise.
And the devout Blosius, addressing the Virgin,
says to her: Lady, to thee are committed the
keys and the treasure of the heavenly kingdom.

And, therefore, we should continually suppli
cate her in the words of St. Ambrose: Open to
us, oh Virgin, heaven, for thou hast the keys of
it.f Nay, thou art even the gate of it, as the
holy Church names thee, "Janua cceli."

For this reason the great mother is also call
ed by the holy Church: Star of the sea: "Ave,
Maris Stella." For as navigators, says the
angelic St. Thomas, are guided to port by means
of a star, thus Christians are guided to heaven
by means of Mary.J

She is for this reason, finally, called by St.
Peter Damian, the ladder of heaven: "Scala
ccelestis;" for, as the saint says, by means of
Mary, God has descended from heaven to earth,
that by the same, or by her, men might merit
to ascend from earth to heaven. And for
this reason, oh Lady, says St. Anastasius, thou
art full of grace, that thou mightest be made
the way of our salvation, and the ascent to the
celestial country. || St. Bernard calls the bless
ed Virgin: The vehicle to heaven: "Vehiculum
ad co3lum." And St. John the Geometrician

salutes her: Hail, most noble chariot: "Salve cla-
rissime currus;" by which her servants are con
ducted to heaven. And, St Bonaventure address
es her thus: Blessed are those who know thee,
oh mother of God! for to know thee is the path
to immortal life, and to publish thy virtues is
the way to eternal salvation.*

In the Franciscan chroniclesf it is related of
brother Leo, that he once saw a red ladder, up
on which Jesus Christ was standing, and a white
one, upon which stood his holy mother. He
saw persons attempting to ascend the red ladder;
they ascended a few steps and then fell; they
ascended again, and again fell. Then they were
exhorted to ascend the white ladder, and on that
he saw them succeed, for the blessed Virgin
offered them her hand, and they arrived in that
manner safe in paradise. St. Denis the Carthu
sian asks: Who will ever be saved? Who will
ever reign in heaven? They are saved, and will
certainly reign, he himself answers, for whom
this queen of mercy offers her prayers.]; And
this Mary herself affirms: By me kings reign:
"Per me reges regnant." Through my inter
cession souls reign first in the mortal life on this
earth, by governing their passions, and then they
go to reign eternally in heaven, where, as St.

Augustine declares, all are kings: "Quot ct
tot reges." Mary, in a word, as Richard of St.
Laurence says, is the mistress of paradise, since
there she commands according to her pleasure,
and introduces into it whom she will. Therefore,
applying to her the words of Ecclesiasticus, ho
adds: "My power is in Jerusalem:"* I command
what I will, and introduce whom I will.f And
as she is the mother of the Lord of paradise, she
is with reason, also, says Rupert, the Lady of
paradise. She possesses, by right, the whole
kingdom of her Son.J

This divine mother, with her powerful prayers
and assistance, has obtained for us paradise, if
we place no obstacle to our entrance there.
Wherefore those who are servants of Mary, and
for whom Mary intercedes, are as secure of par
adise as if they were already there. J To serve
Mary and to belong to her court, adds St. John
of Damascus, is the greatest honor we can attain;
for to serve the queen of heaven is to reign al
ready in heaven, and to live in obedience to her
commands is more than to reign.T On the

other hand, he says that those who do not serve
Mary will not be saved; whilst those who are
deprived of the support of this great mother, are
deprived of the succor of the Son, and of all the
celestial court.*

Forever praised be the infinite goodness of
our God who has constituted Mary our advocate
in heaven, that she, as mother of the judge and
mother of mercy may efficaciously by her
intercession, order the great aif air of our eter
nal salvation. This sentiment is taken from St.
Bernard. f And James the Monk, esteemed a
doctor among the Greek fathers, says that God
has made Mary a bridge of salvation, by which
we are enabled to pass over the waves of this
world, and reach the blessed port of paradise. J
Hence St. Bonaventure exclaims: Hear, oh ye
people who desire paradise; serve and honor
Mary, and you will certainly find life eternal.

Not even those who deserve hell should de
spair of attaining the kingdom of the blessed,
if they faithfully devote themselves to the ser
vice of this queen. Sinners, says St. Germanus,

have sought to find God by thy means, oh Mary t
and have been saved!* Richard of St. Lau^
rence remarks that Mary is said by St. John to
be crowned with stars. f On the other hand, in
the sacred Canticles, the Virgin is said to be
crowned with wild beaste, lions and panthers:
"Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from
Libanus, come; thou shalt be crowned from the
dens of the lions, from the mountains of the
leopards."]; What does this signify? Richard
answers that those wild beasts are those sinners,
who, through the favor and intercession of Mary,
have become stars of paradise, which are a
crown more worthy of this queen of mercy,
than all the material stars of heaven. The
servant of the Lord, sister Seraphina da Capri,
as we read in her life, in her prayes to the most
holy Virgin during the Novena of her assump
tion, asked of her the conversion of a thousand
sinners; but as she feared that her demands
were too extravagant, the Virgin appeared to
her, and reproved her for this her vain fear,
saying to her: "Why do you fear? am I not
powerful enough to obtain for thee from my
Son the salvation of a thousand sinners? Be
hold them, I have already obtained it." She

showed her the soul of innumerable sinners who
had merited hell, and had afterwards been
saved by her intercession, and were already
enjoying eternal bliss.

It is true that in this life no one can be cer
tain of his eternal salvation: "Man knowethnot
whether he be worthy of love or hatred, but all
things are kept uncertain for the time to come."*
David asked of God : Oh Lord, who will be sav
ed? "Who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?"f St.
Bonaventure, writing on these words, answers:
Oh sinners, let us follow the footsteps of Mary,
and cast ourselves at her blessed feet, and let us
not leave her until she blesses us, for her bless
ing will secure to us paradise. J It is enough, oh
Lady, says St. Anselm, that thou dost wish to
save us, for then we cannot but be saved. St.
Antoninus adds, that souls protected by Mary are
necessarily saved; those upon whom she turns
her eyes are necessarily justified and glorified, jj

With reason, says St. Ildephonsus, the most
holy Virgin predicted that all generations would
call her blessed ;*f for all the elect by means of

Mary obtain eternal blessedness.* Thou, oh
great mother, art the beginning, the middle, and
the end of our felicity, says St. Methodius.f-
The beginning, because Mary obtains for us the
pardon of our sins; the middle, because she ob
tains for us perseverance in divine grace; the end,
because she finally obtains for us paradise. By
thee, St. Bernard continues, heaven has been
opened by thee hell has been emptied by thee
paradise has been restored by thee, in a word,
eternal life has been given to many sinners who
have merited eternal death.J

But above all, we should be encouraged in the
certain hope of paradise, by the rich promise
which Mary has herself made to those who hon
or her, and especially to those who, by their
words and their example, strive to make
her known and honored among others:
* They that work by me shall not sin; they that
explain me shall have life everlasting."! Oh
happy, then, are they, says St. Bonaventure, who
gain the favor of Mary! they will be welcomed
by the blessed as being already their compan
ions; and whosoever bears the seal of a servant

of Mary, has his name already written in the
book of life.* Of what avail is it, then, to trou
ble ourselves with the opinions of the school
men, on the question, whether predestination to
glory precedes or follows the foreknowledge of
merits? Whether or not our names are written
in the book of life? If we are true servants of
Mary and obtain her protection, we certainly are
written there; for, as St. John of Damascus says,
God gives the grace of devotion to his holy moth
er only to those whom he will save ; in conformity
with this, as the Lord seems to have declared
expressly through St. John: "He that shall over
come, I will write upon him the name of my
God, and the name of the city of my God." f
And who is this city of God but Mary? as St.
Gregory explains, commenting on this passage
of David: "Glorious things are said of thee, oh
city of God."!

We may, then, well say with St. Paul: "Hav
ing this seal, the Lord knoweth who are his."
Whosoever carries the seal of a servant of Mary,
is acknowledged by God as his own. We read
in St. Bernard, that devotion to the mother of
God is the most certain sign that we shall obtain

eternal salvation.* And the blessed Alarms,
speaking of the "Hail Mary," says that he who
often invokes the Virgin with this angelical
salutation, has a very certain sign of predesti
nation.! And again he says of perseverance in
the daily recitation of the holy rosary: Let it
be to thee a most probable sign of eternal salva
tion, if thou dost perseveringly honor the blessed
Virgin by daily reciting her rosary.J Father
Kierembergh still further remarks, that the ser
vants of the mother of God not only are more
privileged and favored in this world, but also in
heaven will be more especially honored. And
he adds, that in heaven they will have a peculiar
ly rich device and livery, by which they will be
known as servants of the queen of heaven and as
the people of her court, according to those words
of Proverbs: "All her domestics are clothed with
double garments."

St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi saw a small vessel
in the midst of the sea, in which all the servants
of Mary had taken shelter; she herself steering
it, safely conducted them to port. By this the
saint understood that they who live under the
protection of Mary, are rescued , in the midst of

all the dangers of this life, from the shipwreck
of sin, and from damnation, for by her they are
guided in safety to the port of paradise. Let us,
then, strive to enter this blessed little vessel of
the mantle of Mary, and there let us dwell secure
of the kingdom of heaven; for the Church sings,
"Holy mother of God, all those who are to be
partakers of eternal joy dwell with thee, and
live under thy protection."*

EXAMPLE.

Oesarius relates, f that a certain Cistercian
monk, who was a devoted servant of our bless
ed Lady, desired very earnestly a visit from his
dear Lady, and was praying her continually to
grant him this favor. He went one night into
the garden, and while he stood there looking
up to heaven, breathing forth to his queen in
ardent sighs his desire to see her, a beautiful
and radiant virgin descended, and said to him:
Thomas, wouldst thou like to hear me sing?"
"Certainly," he answered, and then she sang so
weetly that it seemed to the devout religious
that he was in paradise. Having finished her
song, she disappeared, -leaving him absorbed
with an ardent desire to know who it could
have been; and, soon after, another extremely
beautiful virgin appeared to him, who, like the
rst, allowed him the pleasure of hearing her

sing. He could not refrain from asking this one
who she was, and the virgin answered : <k She
whom you saw a little while ago was Cather
ine, and I am Agnes, both martyrs for Jesus
Christ, sent by our Lady to console you. Give
thanks to Mary, and prepare for a greater favor."
Having said this she disappeared, but left the re
ligious with a greater hope of finally seeing his
queen. Nor was he deceived, for shortly after he
saw a great light and felt a new joy flowing into
his heart, for in the midst of that light the moth
er of God appeared to him surrounded by angels,
and of a beauty far surpassing that of the other
two saints who had appeared to him. She said
to him: "My dear servant and son, I have been
pleased with the devotion which you have of
fered me, and have graciously heard your pray
ers: you have desired to see me; look on me, and
I will also sing to you." Then the most holy Vir
gin began to sing with so great sweetness, that
the devout religious lost his senses, and fell with
his face upon the ground. The matin-bell sound
ed, the monks assembled, and not seeing Thom
as, searched for him in his cell and other parts
of the convent, and at last going into the garden
they found him there, apparently lifeless. The
superior comanded him to tell what had befallen
him. And coming to himself, by the power of
obedience, he related all the favors which thedi-
Tine mother had bestowed upon him.

GLORIES OF MARY. 289

PRAYER.

Oh queen of paradise! mother of holy
love! for thou art of all creatures the most love
ly, the most beloved of God and his first lover;
ah, suffer the vilest and most ungrateful sinner
on the earth to love thee, who sees himself re
leased from hell by thy intercession, and with
out any merit of his own so blessed by thee, that
he is enamored of thy goodness. I would wish
if I could, to make known to all men who do
not know thee, how worthy thou art to be loved,
that all might love and honor thee. I would
willingly die for love of thee, in defending thy
virginity, thy dignity as mother of God,
and thy immaculate conception; if it
were ever needful for me to die in de
fence of these thy great privileges. Oh my
most beloved mother, graciously accept this my
affection, and do not permit that one of tky ser
vants, who loves thee, should ever become an en
emy of thy God, whom thou lovest so much.
Ah, unhappy me, such once was I when I offend
ed my Lord. But then, oh Mary, I did not
love thee, and I sought little to be loved by thee.
Now, after the grace of God, I desire nothing
else than but to love thee, and to be loved by thee.
I do not despair of this on account of my past
offences, for I know that thou, oh most benign
and grateful Lady, dost not disdain to love
even the most miserable sinners who love thee,
"ever dost allow thyself to be outdone in

290 GLORIES OF MARY.

love by any one. Ob most lovely queen, I wish
to go to thee in paradise, there to love thee.
There, at thy feet, I shall better know how
amiable thou art, and how much thou hast done
to save me; therefore I shall love thee there with
greater love, and shall love thee eternally, with
out the fear that I shall ever cease to love thee.
Oh Mary, I have the certain hope of being
saved through thee. Pray to Jesus for me. I
have no other wish. It is thine to save me; thou
art my hope. I will always exclaim, Oh Mary,
my hope, thou must save me.

CHAPTER IX.

o CLEMENS! o PIA!

Oh clement! Oh mercifull
HOW GREAT IS THE CLEMENCY AND MERCY OP MARY.

ST. BERNARD, speaking of the great mercy of
Mary for us poor sinners, says that she is the
very Land promised by God, flowing with
milk and honey.* St. Leo says, that to the Vir
gin has been given such bowels of compassion,
that she not only merits to be called merciful,
but should be called mercy itself. f And St. Bo-
naventure, considering that Mary was made the
mother of God for the sake of us sinners, and

that to her was committed the charge of dispens
ing mercies; and considering, moreover, the
great care she has for all those in misery, which
renders her so rich in compassion, that she ap
pears to desire nothing else than to relieve the ne
cessitous, says, that when he looked on Mary, it
seemed to him that he no longer beheld the di
vine justice, but only the divine mercy with
which Mary is filled.*

In a word, the mercy of Mary is so great,
that as Guerric the Abbot says: Her bowels of
love can never for a moment cease to bring
forth for us the fruits of mercy. f And what,
exclaims St. Bernard, can flow but mercy
from a fountain of mercy? "Quid de fonte pie-
tatis nisi pietas?"J For this reason Mary was
called the olive-tree: As a fair olive-tree in the
plains: "Quasi oliva speciosa in campis." For,
as the olive-tree produces nothing but oil, the
symbol of mercy, thus from the hands of Mary
nothing but graces and mercies proceed. Hence,
justly, says the venerable Louis da Ponte, is
Mary called the mother of oil, since she is the
mother of mercy.] If, then, we have recourse
to this mother, and ask of her the oil of her
mercy, we cannot fear that she will refuse us,

as the wise virgins refused the foolish, answer
ing: "Lest there be not enough for us and for
you."* No, for she is, indeed, rich in that oil
of mercy, as St. Bonaventure remarks: Mary
abounds in the oil of mercy: "Maria plena oleo
pietatis."f She is called by the Church not
only prudent, but most prudent, and by this we
may understand, as Hugo of St. Victor says,
that Mary is so full of grace and mercy that
there is enough for all without exhausting
her.*

But why, I would ask, is it said that this fair
olive is in the midst of the plains, and not rath
er in a garden surrounded by walls and hedges?
Cardinal Hugo answers to this question: In order
that all may easily see her, and thus may easily
have recourse to her, to obtain relief for their
necessities. St. Antoninus confirms this beau
tiful thought, when he says: That as all can go
and gather the fruit of an olive-tree that is ex
posed in the open fields, so all, both the just and
sinners, can have recourse to Mary to obtain
mercy. [ And then the saint adds: Oh how
many sentences of punishment have been revok
ed through the merciful prayers of this most

holy Virgin, in favor of sinners who have
had recourse to her!* And what more secure
refuge can we find, says the devout Thomas &
Kempis, than the compassionate heart of Mary?
There the poor find shelter; the sick medicine;
the afflicted consolation; the doubtful counsel;
the abandoned help.f

Wretched should we be, if we had not this
mother of mercy, mindful and solicitous to help
us in our miseries! "Where there is no wife,"
says the Holy Spirit, "he mourneth that is in
want."]; This wife, remarks St. John Damascene,
is certainly Mary, without whom the sick man
suffers and mourns. So, indeed, it is, since
God has ordained that all graces should be dis
pensed by the prayers of Mary: where these are
wanting, there is no hope of mercy, as our Lord
signified to St. Bridget, saying to her: "Unless
Mary interposes by her prayers, there is no hope
of mercy. "||

But perhaps we fear that Mary does not see or
pity our miseries. Oh, no! she sees them and
feels them more than we do ourselves. And
who among the saints can be found, says St.

Antoninus, who pities us in our miseries as Marj
does?* Hence, wherever she sees misery she
cannot refrain from hastening to relieve it with
her great compassion.f Thus Richard of St.
Victor remarks, and Mendoza confirms it by say
ing: Therefore, oh blessed Virgin, wherever
thou seest misery, there thou dost pour forth thy
mercies.J And our good mother, as she herself
declares, will never cease to exercise this office
of mercy: And unto the world to come I shall
not cease to be; and in the holy dwelling-place,
I have ministered before him.g Upon which
words Cardinal Hugo remarks: I will not cease,
says Mary, even to the end of the world, to sue*
cor men in their miseries, and to pray for sin
ners, that they may be saved and rescued from
eternal misery. ||

Suetonius relates of the Emperor Titus, that
he was so desirous to grant favors to those who
asked them of him, that on those days when he
had no opportunity of doing so, he would say,
sorrowfully, I have lost a day: "Diem perdidi."
This day has been lost to me, because I have
passed it without benefiting any one. Probably

Titus said this more through vanity, or a desira
for esteem, than through a movement of charity.
But our Empress Mary, if a day should ever
pass in which she did not confer some favor,
would say it only because she is full of charity,
and of a desire to do us good; for as Bernardino
de Bustis says, she is more desirous to confer
favors on us, than we are to receive them from
her.* And this same author adds, that when
we have recourse to her, we shall always find
her with her hands full of mercy and liberality ,f
Rebecca was the type of Mary, who when
the servant of Abraham asked her for a little
water, answered that she would give him water
enough not only for himself, but for his camels
also.J Hence the devout St. Bernard address
ing the blessed Virgin, says: Oh Lady, not to
the servant of Abraham only, but also to his
camels give from thy overflowing pitcher.
By which he intends to say: Oh Lady, thou art
merciful and more liberal than Rebecca, there
fore thou dost not rest contented witli dispens
ing the favors of thy unbounded compassion to
the servants of Abraham alone by whom are

meant the faithful servants of God, but thou
dost bestow them also on the camels, who rep
resent sinners. And, as Rebecca gave more
than she was asked, so Mary bestows more than
we pray for. The liberality of Mary, says Rich
ard of St. Laurence, resembles the liberality of
her Son, who always gives more than is asked,
and is therefore named by St. Paul: "Rich to all
that call upon him;"* that is, giving abundant
ly his graces to all those that have recourse to
him with their prayers. Hear the words of Rich
ard: The bounty of Mary is like the bounty of
her Son; she gives more than is asked. f Hence
a devout author, addressing the Virgin, says: Oh
Lady, pray for me, for thou wilt ask favors for
me with greater devotion than I can do; and
thou wilt obtain from God graces greater by far
than I can pray t or.J

When the Samaritans refused to receive Jesus
Christ and his doctrine, St. James and St. John
said to their Master: Lord, wilt thou that we
command fire to come down from heaven and
consume them?" But the Saviour answered:
"You know not of what spirit you are." As
if he had said: I am of so mild and merciful a
spirit, that I have come from heaven to save, not
to punish sinners, and would you wish to iee

them lost? What fire? What punishment? Be
Bilent, speak to me no more of punishment, that
is not my spirit. But we cannot doubt that
Mary, whose spirit is in every thing so like that
of her Son, is wholly inclined to exercise mercy;
for, as she told St. Bridget, she is called the moth
er of mercy, and the mercy of God itself has made
her so compassionate and sweet towards all.*
Wherefore Mary was seen by St. John clothed
with the sun: "And there appeared a great won
der in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun."f
Upon which passage St. Bernard remarks, ad
dressing the Virgin: Thou hast clothed the sun,
and art thyself clothed with it.J Oh Lady, thou
hast clothed the sun, the divine Word, with hu
man flesh, but he hath clothed thee with his
power and his mercy.

So compassionate, then, and kind is this queen,
says St. Bernard, that when a sinner recom
mends himself to her mercy, she does not begin
to examine his merits, and whether he is worthy
or not of being heard, but she graciously hears
all and succors them. Hence St. Idelbert re
marks, that Mary is called fair as the moon:
"Pulchra ut Luna:"|| because, as the moon illu
minates and benefits the smallest bodies upon the

earth, so Mary enlightens and helps the most
unworthy sinners.* And although the moon re
ceives all her light from the sun, she moves
more quickly than the sun; for, as a certain au
thor remarks, what the sun does in a year, the
moon does in a month. \ Hence, says St. An-
selm: Our relief is sometimes more immediate
when the name of Mary is invoked than when
we invoke the name of Jesus. J Wherefore Hugo
of St. Victor tells us, that if by reason of our
sins we fear to draw near to God, because he is
an infinite majesty that we have offended, we
should not hesitate to have recourse to Mary, be
cause in her we shall find nothing to alarm us.
She is indeed holy, immaculate, queen of the
world, and mother of God; but she is of our flesh,
and a child of Adam, like ourselves.

In a word, says St. Bernard, whatever apper
tains to Mary is full of grace and mercy; fo*
she, as mother of mercy, has become all things
to all, and by her great charity has made her
self a debtor to the just and to sinners, and open
to all the bowels of her compassion, that all may
share it.J As "the Devil,* according to St. Pe-

ter, "goeth about seeking whom he may devour/ *
so, on the contrary, says Bernardino de Bustia,
Mary goeth about seeking to whom she can
give life and salvation. f

We should understand that the protection of
Mary, as St. Germanus says, is greater and
more powerful than we can comprehend. J And
how is it that the same Lord, who was under
the old law so severe in punishing, exercises so
great mercy towards the greatest sinners? Thus
asks the author del Pomerio; and he also an
swers: He does all this for the love and
merits of Mary.|| Oh, how long since would
the world have been destroyed, says St. Fulgeii-
tius, if Mary had not preserved it by her inter
cession !^f But we may with confidence goto
God, as St. Arnold Carnotensis asserts, and hope
for every blessing, now that the Son is our
mediator with the divine Father, and the
mother with the Son. How can it be that the
Father will refuse to hear graciously the Son,
when he shows him the wounds he has received

for sinners? And how can it be that the Son
will not graciously hear the mother, when she
shows him the breasts from which she has nour
ished us?* St. Peter Chrysologus says with,
great energy, that this favored Virgin, having
received God in her womb, demands in return,
peace for the world, salvation for the lost, life
for the dead.f

Oh how many, exclaims the Abbot of Celles,
who merits to be condemned by the divine
justice, are saved by the mercy of Mary! for
she is the treasure of God and the treasure of
all graces; therefore it is that our salvation is in
her hands. J Let us always then have recourse
to this mother of mercy, and confidently hope
to be saved by means of her intercession; since
she, as Bernardine de Bustis encourages us to
believe, is our salvation, our life, our hope, our
counsel, our refuge, our help. Mary is
that very throne of grace, says St. Antoninus,
to which the apostle exhorts us to have recourse
with confidence, that we may obtain the divine

mercy, with all needed help for our salvation.*
To the throne of grace, that is, to Mary, as St.
Antoninus remarks.f Hence, Mary was called
by St. Catherine of Sienna; The dispenser of di-
Tine mercy: * Administratrix misericordise."

Let us conclude, then, with the beautiful and
sweet exclamation of St. Bernard upon the words:
Oh clement, oh merciful, oh sweet Virgin Mary!
"Oh clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria."
Oh Mary, thou art clement to the unhappy, mer
ciful to those who pray thee, sweet to those who
love thee: clement to the penitent, merciful to
the advancing, sweet to the perfect. Thou
ehowest thyself clement by rescuing us from
punishment, merciful by bestowing on us graces,
sweet by giving thyself to those who seek thee.J

EXAMPLE.

Father Charles Bovius relates that in Doinana,
in France, lived a married man who had held a
criminal connection with another woman. Now
the wife being unable to endure this, continually
besought God to punish the guilty parties; and
one day in particular went to an altar of the

blessed Virgin, which was in a certain church t
to implore vengeance upon the woman who had
alienated her husband from her; and this very
woman went also every day to the same altar,
to repeat a "Hail Mary." One night the divine
mother appeared in a dream to the wife, who,
on seeing her, began her accustomed petition:
"Justice, mother of God, justice." But the
-blessed Lady answered: "Justice! do you seek
justice from me? Go and find others, to execute
justice for you. It belongs not to me to do it
for you. Be it known to you," she added,
"that this very sinner offers every day a devo
tion in my honor, and that I cannot allow any
sinner who does this, to suffer and be punished
for his sins." The next day the wife went to
hear mass in the above-named church of our
Lady, and on coming out met her husband s
friend; at the sight of her she began to reproach
her and call her a sorceress, who had even en
chanted with her sorceries the blessed Virgin.
"Be silent," cried the people: "what are you
saying?" "I be silent!" she answered: "what I
say is only too true; this night the Virgin
appeared to me; and when I implored justice of
her, she answered me, that she could not grant
it on account of a salutation which this wicked
woman repeats daily in her honor." They ask
ed the woman what salutation she repeated to
the mother of God, She answered that it was
the "Hail Mary;" and then on hearing that the
blessed Virgin had dealt with her so mercifully

GLORIES OF MARY. 303

in return for that trivial act of devotion, she
cast herself on the ground before the sacred
image, and there, in the presence of all the
people, asked pardon for her scandalous life, and
made a vow of perpetual continence. She after
wards put on a religious habit, built for herself
a little cell near the church, where she retired,
and persevered in continual penance until the
day of her death.

PEAYEE.

Oh mother of mercy! since thou art so com
passionate, and hast so great a desire to do good
to us sinners, and to satisfy our demands, I, the
most wretched of all men, to-day have recourse
to thy mercy, that thou mayest grant my re
quests. Let others ask what they will, health of
body, wealth, or temporal advantages; I come to
ask of thee, oh Lady, those things which thou thy
self dost most desire of me, and which are most
comforinable and most pleasing to thy sacred
heart. Thou who wast so humble, obtain for
me humility and love of contempt. Thou who
wast so patient in the difficulties of this life, ob
tain for me patience in things contrary to my wish
es. Thou who didst overflow with love to God,
obtain forme the gift of a holy and pure love.
Thou who wast all charity towards the neighbor,
obtain for me charity towards all men, and es
pecially towards those who are my enemies.
Thou who wast wholly united to the divine will,
obtain for me a perfect uniformity with the will

304 GLORIES OP MARY.

of that God in all his dispositions concerning
me. Thou, in a word, art the most holy of a?l
creatures; oh Mary, obtain for me the grace to
become a saint. Thy love is unfailing;thou canst
and wilt obtain all things for me. Nothing,
then, can hinder me from receiving thy graces
but my neglect to invoke thee, or my want of
confidence in thy intercession. But thou thyself
must obtain for me the grace to seek thee, and this
grace of confidence in thy intercession. These
two greatest gifts I ask from thee from thee
will I receive them from thee do I confidently
hope for them. Oh Mary! Mary, my mother,
my hope, my love, my life, my refuge, and my
consolation. Amen.

GLORIES OF MARY. *U,

CHAPTER X.

O DULCIS VIRGO MARIA.

Oh sweet Virgin Mary!

HOW SWElEiC IS THE NAME OP MARY IN LIFE AND IN
DEATH!

THE great nnme of Mary, which was given to
the divine mother, was not found on earth, neith
er was it invented by the mind or will of men, as
were all other names that are in use among them;
but it came from heaven, and was given to the
Virgin by divine ordinance, as St. Jerome,* St.
Epiphanius f St. Antoninus,J and others attest.
The name of Mary was drawn from the treasury
of the divinity, as Richard of St. Laurence says:
" De thesauro divinitatis Marise nomen evol-
vitur." From the treasury of the divinity, oh
Mary, came forth thy excellent and admirable
name; for the Most Holy Trinity, the same au
thor goes on to say, gave to thee this name, next
to the name of thy Son, so superior to every name,
and attached to it such majesty and power, that
when it is uttered, all in heaven, earth, and hell

* Lib. de Nat. Mar. t Or. de Praes. Deip.

t Hist, tit, 4. c. 6. De Laud. Virg. p. 14.

GLORIES OF MARY.

must fall prostrate and venerate it.* Among *J1
the other privileges which the Lord has attached
to the name of Mary, let us see how swees he
has made it to the servants of this most holy
Lady in life as well as in death.

To begin with life, the holy anchorite, Hon-
orius, says, that the name of Mary is fall of all
divine sweetness.f And the glorious St. Anthony
of Padua attributes to the name of Mary the same
sweetness as St. Bernard attributed to the name
of Jesus. The name of Jesus, said the latter,
the name of Mary, said the former, is joy to the
heart, honey to the mouth, melody to the ear of
their devoted servants. J It is related in the
life of the venerable Father John Ancina, Bish
op of Saluzzo, that when he pronounced the name
of Mary, he experienced so great a sensible
sweetness that he even tasted it on his lips.
We also read that a certain woman in Cologne
told the Bishop Marsillius, that whenever she
pronounced the name of Mary she perceived in
her mouth a taste sweeter than honey. Mar
sillius made the trial, and he also experienced
the same sweetness. We read in the holy Can
ticles, that at the Assumption of the Virgin, the
angels three times asked her name: "Who is she

that goeth up by the desert as a pillar of
smoke?"* "Who is she that cometh forth as
the morning rising?"f And in another: Who
is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing
with delights?"!; Richard of St. Laurence in
quires why the angels so often asked the name
of this queen, and answers: The sound of the
name of Mary was so sweet to the angels, and
they repeated the question that they might hear
it repeated also.

But I do not hear speak of this sensible sweet
ness, since it is not commonly granted to all, but
I speak of the salutary sweetness of consolation,
love, joy, confidence, and strength, which the
name of Mary universally gives to those who,
with devotion, pronounce it. Speaking on this
subject, Francone the Abbot says, that next to
the holy name of Jesus, the name of Mary is so
rich in blessings, that no other name is uttered
on earth or in heaven from which devout souls
receive so much grace, hope, and sweetness. J
For the name of Mary, he goes on to say, con
tains in itself something admirable, sweet, and

divine, which, when it meets a friendly heart,
breathes into it an odor of holy sweetness. And
the wonder of this great name is, he concludes,
that if heard a thousand times by the lovers of
Mary, it is always heard as new, the sweetness
they experience in hearing it spoken being al
ways the same.*

The blessed Henry Suso, also speaking of
this sweetness, says, that in pronouncing the
name of Mary, he felt his confidence so much in
creased, and his love so joyfully enkindled, that
amidst the joy and tears with which he pro
nounced the beloved name, he thought his heart
would have leaped from his mouth ; and he affirm
ed that this most sweet name, as honeycomb,
melted into the depths of his soul. Whereat
he exclaims: Oh most sweet name! oh Mary, what
must thou thyself be, if thy name alone is so
lovely and sweet?

The enamored St. Bernard, too, addressing
his good mother with tenderness, says to her: Oh
great, oh merciful Mary, most holy Virgin,
worthy of all praise, thy name is so sweet and
lovely that it cannot be spoken without enkind
ling love to thee and to God in the heart of him
who pronounces it; the thought of it alone is
enough to console thy lovers, and inflame them

with a far greater love to thee.* If riches are
a consolation to the poor, because by them they
are relieved of their miseries, oh how much more,
says Richard of St. Laurence, does thy name
console us sinners, oh Mary; far more than the
riches of earth it relieves us in the troubles of
the present life.f

In a word, thy name, oh mother of God, is
full of grace and divine blessings, as St. Metho-
dius says.J And St. Bonaventure affirms that
thy name cannot be pronounced but it brings
some grace to him who devoutly utters it. So
great is the virtue of thy name, oh most com-
passionate Virgin, says the Idiot, that no one can
pronounce it, however hardened, however de
sponding may be his heart, and not find it won
derfully softened; for it is thou who dost console
sinners with the hope of pardon and of grace.||
Thy most sweet name, according to St. Ambrose,
is a sweet ointment, which breathes the fragrance
of divine grace.^f The saint thus invokes the

divine mother: May this oil of salvation descend
into the depths of our soul; by which he intends
to say: Oh Lady, remind us often to pronounce
thy name with love and confidence; for thus to
name thee, either is a sign that we already
possess divine grace, or it is an earnest that we
shall soon recover it.

For as Landolph of Saxony expresses it: The
remembrance of thy name, oh Mary, consoles
the afflicted, brings back the wanderer to the
path of salvation, encourages the sinner, and
saves him from despair;* and Father Pelbart re
marks, that as Jesus Christ by his five wounds
has prepared for the world the remedy for its
woes, thus also Mary, with her most holy name,
which is composed of five letters, confers every
day pardon upon sinners. f

For this reason, the holy name of Mary in the
sacred Canticles is compared to oil: Thy name
is as oil poured out: "Oleum effusum nomen
tuum."J The blessed Alanus, commenting on
this passage, says: The glory of her name is
compared to oil poured out. As oil heals the
sick, diffuses odor, and kindles flame; thus the

name of Mary heals sinners, rejoices hearts, and
inflames them with divine love.* Hence Richard
of St. Laurence encourages sinners to invoke this
great name, because that alone will be sufficient
to cure all their maladies; adding, that there is
no disease so malignant that it will not at once
yield to the virtue of this name.f

On the other hand, the devils, as Thomas
Kempis affirms, are in such fear of the queen of
heaven that at the sound of her great name they
flee from him who pronounces it as from burn
ing fire.]; The Virgin herself revealed to St.
Bridget that there is no sinner living so cold in
divine love, that if he invokes her holy name,
with the resolution to amend, the devil will not
instantly depart from him. And she at anoth
er time assured her of this, telling her that all
the demons so greatly venerate and fear her
name, that when they hear it pronounced they
immediately release the soul which they held
in theirchains.ll

And as the rebel angels depart from sinners who
invoke the name of Mary, thus, on the contrary,
our Lady herself told St. Bridget, that the good
angels draw more closely around those just
souls who devoutly pronounce it.* And St. Ger-
manus assures us, that as breathing is a sign of
life, so the frequent utterance of the Dame of
Mary is a sign that we are already living in divine
grace, or that we shall soon receive that life; for
this powerful name is effectual to obtain help and
life for him who devoutly invokes it.f Finally,
Richard of St. Laurence adds, that this admi
rable name is like a tower of strength, by taking
shelter in which the sinner will be saved from
death, since from this celestial tower the most
abandoned sinners come forth securely defended
and saved. J

A tower of strength, thus continues the same
Richard, which not only shields sinners from
punishment, but also defends the just from the
assaults of hell; and he adds: Next to the name
of Jesus there is no name which gives such sup
port, and through which so great salvation is be-

itowed upon men, as this great name of Mary.*
Especially is it everywhere known, and the ser
vants of Mary daily experience, that her great
name gives strength to overcome temptations
against chastity. The same author, remarking
on the words of St. Luke: And the name of the
Virgin was Mary: "Et nomen Virginis Maria,"f
Bays, that these two names, of Mary and of Vir
gin, are united by the evangelist to show that
the name of this most pure Virgin can never be
separated from chastity. J Hence St. Peter
Chrysologus says, that the name Mary is a sign
of chastity: "Nomen hoc indicium castitatis;"
meaning, that whoever is in doubt whether he
has yielded to temptations against purity, if he
remembers having invoked the name of Mary
may be sure that he has not violated chastity.

Let us, then, always follow the beautiful
counsel of St. Bernard, who says: In every dan
ger of losing divine grace let us think of Mary,
let us invoke the name of Mary together with
that of Jesus, for these names are always united.
Let these two most sweet and powerful names
never depart from our heart and our lips, for
they will always give us strength to keep us from

falling, and to conquer every temptation.*
Very precious are the graces which Jesus Christ
has promised to those who are devoted to the
name of Mary, as he himself, speaking to his
holy mother, gave St. Bridget to understand, re
vealing to her that whoever will invoke the name
of Mary with confidence and a purpose of amend
ment, shall receive three special graces: namely,
a perfect contrition for nis sins, the grace to make
satisfaction for them and strength to obtain per
fection, and at last, the glory of paradise ;f for
as the divine Saviour added: "Thy words are so
sweet and dear to me, oh my mother, that I can
not refuse thee what thou dost ask." J

Finally, St. Ephrem adds that the name of
Mary is the key of the gate of heaven to him
who devoutly invokes it; and therefore St.
Bonaventure rightly calls Mary the salvation of all
those who invoke her: "Osalus te invocantium;"
as if it were the same thing to invoke the name
of Mary and to obtain eternal salvation; for as
the Idiot affirms: The invocation of this holy and
sweet name leads to the acquisition of super-

abundant grace in this life, and sublime glory
in another.* If you desire, then, brethren, con
cludes Thomas a Kempis, to be consoled in every
affliction, have recourse to Mary, invoke Mary,
honor Mary, recommend yourselves to Mary.
Rejoice with Mary, weep with Mary, pray with
Mary, walk with Mary, and with Mary seek
Jesus; in a word, with Jesus and Mary desire to
live and die. Do this, he adds, and you will al
ways advance in the way of the Lord; for Mary
will pray for you, and the Son will surely gra
ciously listen to the mother.f Such are his
beautiful words.

Very sweet, then, in life to her servants, is
the most holy name of Mary, on account of the
great graces which it obtains for them, as we
have seen above; but sweeter still will it be to
them in dying by the sweet and holy death she
will obtain for them. Father Sertorio Caputo,
of the Society of Jesus, exhorted all those who
were called to the bedside of the dying, often
to pronounce the name of Mary, saying that
this name of life and of hope, pronounced in
death, is alone sufficient to scatter the enemies

and to comfort the dying in all their anguishes
St. Camillus of Lellis also strongly recommended
it to his religious, that they should remind tht
dying often to invoke the name of Mary and of
Jesus, as he always practised it with others; but
more sweetly he practised it himself at the mo*
ment of his death, when, as we read in his life,
he named with so much tenderness his beloved
names of Jesus and Mary, that he inflamed also
with love of them all those who heard him. And
at length, with his eyes fixed on their adorable
image, and his arms crossed, the saint expired
in celestial peace, pronouncing with his last
breath the most sweet names of Jesus and Mary,
This short prayer of invoking the holy names of
Jesus and Mary, says Thomas a Kempis, which
it is as easy to retain in the memory as it is
sweet to consider, is at the same time powerful
to protect whoever uses it from all the enemies
of our salvation.*

Blessed is he, says St. Bonaventure, wholovea
thy sweet name, oh mother of God.f Thy name
is so glorious and admirable, that those who
remember to invoke it at the moment of death,
do not then fear all the assaults of the enemy.J

Oh, the happy lot of dying as Father Fulgen*
tius of Ascoli, a Capuchin, died, who expired

singing: Oh Mary, Mary, the most lovely of all
beings, let me depart in thy company. Or, as
blessed Henry the Cistercian, of whom it is re
lated in the annals of the order, that he died
with the name of Mary on his lips.* Let us
pray, then, my devout reader, let us pray God to
grant us this grace, that the last word we pro
nounce at death may be the name of Mary; as
St. Germanus desired and prayed. f Oh sweet
death, oh safe death, that is accompanied and
protected by such a name of salvation, that God
does not permit it to be invoked in death, except
by those whom he will save!

Oh, my sweet Lady and mother, I love thee
much, and because I love thee, I love also thy
holy name. I purpose and hope with thy aid al
ways to invoke it in life and death. For the
glory, then, of thy name (let us conclude with
the tender prayer of St. Bonaventure), when my
soul departs from this world, wilt thou come to
meet it, oh blessed Lady, and take it in thy
arms?J Do not disdain, oh Mary, let us con
tinue to pray with the saint, to come and com
fort it, then, with thy sweet presence. Thou art
its ladder and way to paradise. Wilt thou ob
tain for me the grace of pardon and eternal

rest?* And the saint then terminates with say.
ing: Oh Mary, our advocate, to thee it belongs
to shield thy servants, and defend their cause be
fore the tribunal of Jesus Christ.f

EXAMPLE.

It is related by Father Rho, in his Sabbati,
and by Father Lireo, in his Trisagio Mariana, of
a certain young maiden of Guelder-land, who
lived about the year 1465, that she was sent one
day by her uncle to purchase something at the
market of the city of Nimeguen, with the direc
tion to go and pass the night" at the house of her
aunt, who lived in the town. The girl obeyed,
but when she went at night to her aunt s house,
she was rudely sent away by her, and she set out
on her way homewards. Night overtaking her,
she fell into a passion, and called loudly upon
the devil to come to her aid. And behold, he
suddenly appeared in the form of a man, and
promised to assist her, provided she would do
one thing. I will do any thing, answered the
unhappy creature. I only wish, said the enemy,
that henceforth you will not bless yourself with
the sign of the cross, and will change your
name. As to the cross, she answered, I will no
longer sign myself with it, but my name of
Mary is too dear to me, I will not change it.

Then I will not help you, said the devil. At
length, after much debate, is was agreed that
she should be called by the first letter of the
name of Mary, that is, Erarae. They then went
together to Antwerp, and the wretched girl re
mained there six years with her diabolical com
panion, living so sinful a life, that it was the
scandal of the whole place. One day she told
the devil that she wished to see her country again;
the enemy objected, but finally was obliged to
consent. When they entered together the city
of ETimeguen, there was just then performing a
public representation of the life of the most holy
Mary. At such a sight the poor Emrne, from
that little devotion she had still preserved tow.
ards the mother of God, began to weep.
"What are we doing here?" said her companion;
"would you perform here another comedy?"
He then seized her to take her away, but she
resisted, and seeing that she was escaping from
him, in a rage he raised her into the air and let
her fall in the midst of the theatre. The poor
girl then related what had happened to her. She
went to the parish priest to confess, but he sent
her to the Bishop of Cologne, and the bishop
sent her to the Pope, who, having heard her con
fession, imposed it upon her as a penance, that
she should wear three rings of iron, one around
her neck, and two around her arms. The pen
itent obeyed, and having arrived at Maestricht,
she retired into a convent of penitents, where
she lived for fourteen years in severe penance.

320 GLORIES OF MARY.,

One morning she arose from her bed and found
the three rings broken. Two years after she
died in the odor of sanctity, and wished to have
the ring buried with her, which had changed her
from a slave of hell into the happy slave of Mary,
her deliverer.

PRAYER.

Oh great mother of God, and my mother
Mary, it is true that I am unworthy to pro
nounce thy name, but thou who lovest me, and
dost desire my salvation, thou must obtain for
me, that, unclean as maybe my tongue, I may
yet always invoke thy most holy and most
powerful name; for thy name is the support of
the living, and the salvation of the dying. Ah,
most pure Mary! ah, most sweet Mary! make
thy name henceforth to be the breath of my life.
Oh Lady, do not delay coming to my help when
I call upon thee, since in all the temptations
which may assail me, in all the necessities I may
suffer, I shall never cease calling upon thee, al
ways repeating Mary, Mary. Thus I hope to do
in life, thus especially I hope to do in death, that
I may afterwards come to praise eternally in
heaven thy beloved name: O clemens! O pia! O
dulcis Virgo Maria! Ah Mary! Mary most ami
able! what comfort, what sweetness, what con
fidence, what tenderness does my soul fee) only in
pronouncing thy name, only in thinking of thee?
I thank my God and my Lord that he has given

GLORIES OF MARY. 321

thee, for my good, this name so sweet, so lovely,
so powerful.

But, oh my Lady, I am not satisfied with
merely pronouncing thy name, I would pro
nounce it also with love; I desire that my love
may remind me to speak thy name at every
hour, that I may exclaim with St. Anselm:
Oh name of the mother of God, thou art my
love. O amor mei nomen matris Dei.

Oh my dear mother Mary! oh my beloved
Jesus! may your most sweet names always live
in my own and in all hearts. May I forget all
other names, that I may remember and always
invoke none but your adored names. Ah Jesus,
my Redeemer! and my mother Mary, when the
moment of my death shall arrive, and my soul
shall depart from this life, by your merits grant
me the grace then to utter my last accents, re
peating: Hove you, Jesus and Mary; Jesus and
Mary, I give you my heart and my soul.

SOME DEYOUT PRAYER.S

OP VARIOUS SAINTS

TO THE HOLY MOTHER.

THE following prayers are added, not only for the use
of the faithful, but also because they show the great
idea which the saints entertained of the power and mer
cy of Mary, and their great confidence in her patronage.

PRAYER. OF ST. EPHREM.

OH immaculate and wholly pure Virgin Mary!
mother of God, queen of the universe, our most
excellent Lady, thou art superior to all the saints,
thou art the only hope of the Fathers, and the
joy of the blessed. By thee we have been
reconciled to our God. Thou art the only ad
vocate of sinners, the secure haven of the ship
wrecked. Thou art the consolation of the world,
the redemption of captives, the joy of the sick,
the comfort of the afflicted, the refuge and sal
vation of the whole world. Oh great princess!
mother of God! cover us with the wings of thy
compassion: have pitv on us. We have no hope
but in thee, oh most pure Virgin! We are given

328

GLORIES OF MAKY. 32S

to thee, and consecrated to thy service; we bear
the name of thy servants; do not permit Lucifer
to draw us down to hell. Oh immaculate Vir
gin! we are under thy protection; therefore,
unitedly we have recourse to thee, and supplicate
thee to prevent thy Son, whom our sins have
offended, from abandoning us to the power of
the devil.

Oh full of grace! illuminate my intellect, loos
en my tongue that it may sing thy praises, and
especially the Angelic Salutation, so worthy of
thee. I salute thee, oh peace! oh joy! oh salva
tion and consolation of the whole world! I sal
ute thee oh greatest of miracles! paradise of de
light! secure haven of those who are in danger!
fountain of grace! mediatrix of God and men!

PRAYER. OF ST. BERNARD.

WE raise our eyes to thee, oh queen of the
world. After having committed so many sins
we must appear before our Judge, and who
will appease him? None can do it better than
thou, oh blessed Lady, who hast loved him so
much, and hast been so tenderly beloved by him.
Open thy heart, then, oh mother of mercy, to
our sighs and prayers. We fly to thy protec
tion; appease the anger of thy Son, and restore
us to his favor. Thou dost not abhor the sin
ner, however loathsome he may be; thou dost
not despise him, if he sends up his sighs to thee,
and with contrition asks thy intercession; thou,
with thy kind hand, dost deliver him from d*

324 GLORIES OF MARY.

spair; thou dost encourage him to hope, dost com
fort him, and dost not leave him until thou
hast reconciled him to his Judge.

Thou art that only one in whom the Saviouf
found his rest, and with whom he has deposited
all his treasures. Hence all the world, oh Mary,
honors thy chaste womb, as the temple of God,
where the salvation of the world had its begin
ning. In thee was effected the reconciliation be
tween God and man. Thou art the enclosed
garden, oh great mother of God, whose flowers
have never been gathered by the sinner s hand.
Thou art the beautiful garden, in which God
has placed all the flowers which adorn the
Church, such as the violet of thy humility, the
lily of thy purity, and the rose of thy charity.
Who can be compared to thee, oh mother of grace
and of beauty? Thou art the paradise of God.
From thee hath sprung up the fountain of liv
ing water, that waters all the earth. Oh, how
many favors hast thou bestowed upon the
world, by meriting to be the channel of the
waters of salvation!

Of thee the Holy Ghost speaks when he says:
Who is she that arises like the dawn, fair as the
moon, bright as the sun? Thou art, then, come
into the world, oh Mary, as a resplendent dawn,
preceding, with the light of thy sanctity, the
coming of the Sun of Justice. The day in which
thou didst appear in the world may truly be
called the day of salvation, the day of grace.
Thou art fair as the moon; for aa there is no

GLORIES OF MARY. 325

planet more like the sun, so there is no creature
more like God than thou art. The moon illu
minates the night with the light which it re
ceives from the sun, and thou dost illuminate our
darkness, with the splendor of thy virtues; and
thou art fairer than the moon, because in thee
is found neither stain nor shade. Thou art
bright as the sun, I mean as that Sun which
hath created the sun; he has been chosen among
all men, and thou among all women. Oh sweet,
oh great, oh most lovely Mary, thy name can
not be pronounced by any one that thou dost
inflame with thy love; neither can those who
love thee think of thee without feeling them
selves encouraged to love thee more.

Oh blessed Lady, help our weakness. And
who is more fit to speak to our Lord Jesus Christ
than thou, who dost enjoy, so near to him, hia
sweet conversation? Speak, speak, oh Lady, be
cause thy Son listens, and thou wilt obtain from
him whatever thou shalt demand.

PRAYER. OP ST. GERMANTJS.

OH my only Lady, who art the sole consoV*
tion which I receive from God; thou who art the
only celestial dew that doth soothe my pains;
thou who art the light of my soul when it is
surrounded with darkness; thou who art my
guide in my journeyings, my strength in my
weakness, my treasure in my poverty ; balm for
my wounds, my consolation in sorrow; thon
who art my refuge in misery, the hope of my

326 GLORIES OF MARY.

salvation, graciously hear my prayer, have pity
on me, as is befitting the mother of a God who
hath so much love for men. Thou who art our
defence and joy, grant me what I ask; make me
worthy of enjoying with thee that great happi
ness which thou dost enjoy in heaven. Yes, my
Lady, my refuge, my life, my help, my defence,
my strength, my joy, my hope, make me to come
with thee to paradise. I know that, being the
mother of God, thou canst obtain this for me if
thou wilt. Oh Mary, thou art omnipotent to
save sinners, thou needest nothing else to re
commend us to thee, for thou art the mother of
true life.

SURNAMED THE IDIOT.

DRAW me after thee, oh Virgin Mary, that I
may run to the odor of thy perfumes. Draw
me, for I am held back by the weight of my sins
and by the malice of my enemies. As no one
goes to thy Son unless the divine Father draws
him, so I would dare to say, in a certain sense,
that no one goes to him if thou dost not draw
him with thy holy prayers. It is thou who
feachest true wisdom; thou who dost obtain par
don for sinners, because thou art their advocate.
It is thou who dost promise glory to him who
honors thee, because *-bou art the treasurer of
graces.

Thou hast found grace with God, oh most

GLOBIES OF MAKT. 327

sweet Virgin, because thou hast been preserved
from the stain of original sin, filled with the
Holy Spirit, and hast conceited the Son of God.
Thou hast received all these graces, oh Mary
most humble, not only for thyself, but also
for us, that thou mayest help us in all our ne^
cessities. And thou, indeed, dost so; thou dost
guccor the good by preserving them in grace;
and the bad, by bringing them to receive the
divine mercy; thou dost aid the dying by pro
tecting them against the snares of the devil;
and thou dost aid them also after death by re
ceiving their souls, and leading them to the
kingdom of the blessed.

PEAYEB OP ST. METHODIUS.

THY name, oh mother of God, is full of all
graces and divine blessings. Thou hast compre
hended him who is incomprehensible, and nour
ished him who nourishes all living creatures. He
who fills heaven and earth and is Lord of all, has
chosen to have need of thee, since thou hast cloth
ed him with that garment of flesh that he had not
before. Rejoice, oh mother and handmaid of
God! rejoice! rejoice! thou hast for a debtor him
to whom all creatures owe their being. We are
all debtors to God, but God is a debtor to thee.
Hence it is, oh most holy mother of God, that
thou hast greater goodness and greater charity
than all the other saints, and more than all others
hast near access in heaven to God, because thou
art his mother. Ah, we pray thee that we may

328 GLORIES OF MARY.

celebrate thy glories, and may know how great
is thy goodness, being mindful of us and of our
miseries.

PRAYER. OF ST. JOHN DAMASCENE.

I SALUTE thee, oh Mary ! thou art the hope of
Christians; receive the petition of a servant who
tenderly loves thee, especially honors thee, and
places in thee all the hope of his salvation. From
thee I have life, thou dost restore me to the fa
vor of thy Son; thou art the certain pledge of iny
salvation. I implore thee, then, to deliver me
from the burden of my sins; dispel the darknes
of my mind; banish earthly affections from
my heart; repel the temptations of my enemies,
and so order my life, that I may reach, by thy
means and by thy guidance, the eternal felicity
of paradise.

PRAYER. OF ST. ANDREW OF CANDIA, Ol* OF JERU
SALEM.

I SALUTE thee, oh full of grace! the Lord is
with thee. I salute thee, oh cause of our joy, by
whom the sentence of our condemnation has been
already revoked, and changed into a judgment
of benediction. I salute thee, oh temple of the
glory of God, sacred house of the King of Hea-
Ten. Thou art the reconciliation of God with
men. I salute thee, oh mother of our joy. In
truth thou art blessed, for thou alone, among all
women, hast been found worthy of being th

GLORIES OF MARY. 329

mother of thy Creator. All nations call thee
blessed.

Oh Mary, if I put my confidence in thee I shall
be saved; if I am under thy protection I have
nothing to fear, for to be thy servant is to have
the secure armor of salvation, which God does
not grant except to those whom he will save.

Oh mother of mercy, appease thy Son. Whilst
thou wast on earth thou didst only occupy a
small part of it; but now that thou art raised
above the highest heaven, the whole world con
siders thee as the propitiatory of all nations.
We supplicate thee, then, oh holy Virgin, to
grant us the aid of thy prayers with God; pray
ers which are dearer and more precious to us than
all the treasures of earth; prayers that render
God inclined to forgive our sins; and wilt thou
obtain for us abundant graces to receive the par
don of them and to practise virtue? prayers that
conquer our enemies, confound their designs, and
triumph over their forces.

PBATER OP ST. ILDEPHONSUS.

I COME to thee, oh mother of God, I supplicate
thee to obtain for me the pardon of my sins, and
that I may be purified from all the errors of my
life. I pray thee to grant me thy grace, that I
may unite myself with affection to thy Son and
to thee; to thy Son as to my God, to thee as to
the mother of my God.

530 GLOEIES OF MABY.

PEAYEB OF ST. ATHANASIUS.

HEARKEN oh most holy Virgin, to our prayers,
and remember us. Dispense to us the gifts of
thy riches, and the abundant graces with which
thou art filled. The archangel salutes thee and
calls thee full of grace. All nations call thee
blessed; the whole hierarchy of heaven blesses
thee, and we, who are of the terrestrial hierarchy,
also say to thee: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord
is with thee;" pray for us, oh mother of God, our
Lady and our Queen.

PKAYEB OF ST. ANSELM.

WE pray thee, oh most blessed Lady, by that
grace which God bestowed on thee when he so
greatly exalted thee, rendering all things possible
to thee with him; we pray thee to obtain for us
that the fulness of grace which thou hast merit
ed may make us to share thy glory. Be pleased,
oh most merciful Lady, to procure for us the
good for which God consented to become man in
thy chaste womb. Be not slow to hear us. If
thou wilt deign to supplicate thy Son, he at once
will graciously hear thee. It is enough that thou
wilt save us, for then we cannot but be saved.
Who can restrain the bowels of thy compassion?
If thou hast not compassion on us, thou who art
the mother of mercy, what will become of us
when thy Son shall come to judge us?

Come, then, to our succor, oh most compassion-

GLORIES OP MARY.

ate mother, without regarding the multitude of
our sins. Remember again and again that our
Creator has taken human flesh from thee, not
to condemn sinners, but to save them. If thou
hadst been made mother of God only for thine
own advantage, it might be said that it would be
to thee of little importance whether we were
saved or condemned; but God has clothed him
self with thy flesh for thy salvation and for that
of all men. What will it avail us that thou art
BO powerful and so glorious, if thou dost not
render us partakers of thy felicity ? Aid us and
protect us; remember the need we have of thy
assistance. We recommend ourselves to thee;
save us from damnation, and make us serve and
love eternally thy Son Jesus Christ.

PRAYER. OF ST. PETER DAMIAN.

HOLY VIRGIN, mother of God, succor those
who implore thy assistance. Turn to us. But,
having been deified, as it were, hast thou for
gotten men? Ah, certainly not. Thou kuowest
in what peril thou hast left us, and the wretched
condition of thy servants; no, it is not befitting a
mercy so great, to forget so great misery as
ours. Turn to us with thy power, because he
who is powerful hath given thee omnipotence in
heaven and on earth. To thee nothing is im
possible, for thou canst raise even the despair
ing to the hope of salvation. Thou must be
compassionate as thou art powerful.

332 GLORIES OP MARY.

Turn to us, also, in thy love. I know, oh my
Lady, that thou art all kindness, and dost love
us with a love that no other love can surpass. How
dost thou appease the anger of our Judge when
he is on the point of punishing us for our offences!
All the treasures of the mercy of God are in thy
hands. Ah, may it never happen that thou
shouldst cease from doing us good: thou seekest
but the occasion of saving all sinners, and of be
stowing thy mercy upon them; for thy glory in
creases when, by thy means, penitents are pardon
ed, and the pardoned come to paradise. Turn, then
to us, that we may come to see thee in heaven; for
the greatest glory we can obtain next to seeing
God, is to see thee, to love thee, and to be under
thy protection. Ah, graciously hear us, since
thy Son wishes to honor thee, by granting all
thy requests.

PRAYER. OP ST. WILLIAM, BISHOP OP PARIS.

OH mother of God, I fly to thee and I im
plore thee not to cast me off, for the whole
Church of the faithful calls thee, and proclaims
thee the mother of mercy. Thou art so dear to
God, that thou art always graciously heard; thy
compassion has never been wanting to any one;
thy most gracious condescension has never de
spised any sinner, however enormous his sin, who
has recommended himself to thee. Does the
Church falsely and in vain call thee her advo
cate, and the refuge of the unhappy? No; let my

GLORIES OF MARY. 333

sins never prevent thee from exercising thy
great office of mercy by which thou art the ad
vocate, the mediatrix of reconciliation, the only
hope, and the most secure refuge of sinners.
Let it never be that the mother, who, for the
good of the whole world, brought forth him
who is the fountain of mercy, should refuse her
mercy to any sinner who has recourse to her.
It is is thy office to reconcile God to man; let
then thy compassion move thee to help me,
for it is greater than all my sins.

PRAYER. TO THE MOST HOLY MARY.
TO BE SAID EVERY DAY AT THE END OF THE VISIT.

OH most holy, immaculate Virgin, and my
mother Mary, to thee who art the mother of my
Lord, the queen of the world, the advocate, the
hope, the refuge of sinners, I, the most miser
able of all, have recourse to-day. I adore thee,
oh great queen, and thank thee for all the fa
vors thou hast hitherto granted me, especially
for having delivered me from hell, which I have
so often deserved. I love thee, oh most amia
ble Lady, and through the love I bear thee prom
ise that I will always serve thee, and do all that I
can that thou mayest also be loved by others.
I place in thee all my hopes of salvation; accept
me for thy servant, and receive me under thy
mantle, oh thou mother of mercy. And since
thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from
all temptations, or obtain for me the strength

334 GLORIES OF MARY.

to conquer them always until death. From
theelask a true love for Jesus; from thee I
hope to die a good death. Oh, my mother, by
the love thou bearest to God, I pray thee always
to help me, but most of all at the last moment
of my life. Do not leave me until thou seest
me actually safe in heaven, blessing thee, and
singing thy mercies throughout all eternity.
Amen. Thus I hope. Thus may it be.

E3TD OP THE PIBST PART,

THE GLORIES OF MARY.

PART II.

Which treats of her principal Festivals; of her dolors
in general, and of each of her seven dolors in particu
lar; of her virtues; and lastly, of devotion to be practised
in her honor.

886

LOBIES OF MARY. 337

DISCOURSES ON THE SEVEN PRINCIPAL
FEASTS OF MARY AND HER DOLORS.

DISCOURSE I.

ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY.

Sow befitting it was to all Three of the Divine Persons that
Mary should be preserved from original sin.

THE ruin was great which accursed sin
brought upon Adam and the whole human race;
for when he unhappily lost grace, he at the
same time lost the other blessings with which, in
the beginning, he was enriclud, and drew upon
himself, and upon all his descendants, both the
displeasure of God, and all other evils. But
God ordained that the blessed Virgin should be ex
empt from this common calamity, for he had des
tined her to be the mother of the second Adam,
Jesus Christ, who was to repair the injury done
by the first. Now, let us see how befitting it was
that the Three Divine Persons should preserve
this Virgin from original sin. We shall see that
it was befitting the Father to preserve her from it
as his daughter, the Son as his mother, the Holy
Spirit as his spouse.

First Point. In the first place, it was fitting
that the eternal Father should create Mary free
from the original stain, because she was his
daughter, and his first-born daughter, as she

338 GLORIES OF MARY.

herself attests: "I came out of the mouth of the
Most High, the first-born before all creatures;"*
for this passage is applied to Mary by the sa
cred interpreters, by the holy Fathers, and by
the Church herself, on the solemn festival of her
Conception. Whether she be the first-born on
account of her predestination, together with her
Son, in the divine decrees, before all creatures,
as the school of the Scotists will have it; or the
first-born of grace, as predestined to be the
mother of the Redeemer, after the prevision of
Bin, according to the school of the Thomists, all
agree in calling her the first-born of God; which
being the case, it was not meet that Mary
should be the slave of Lucifer, but that she
should only and always be possessed by her
Creator, as she herself asserts: "The Lord pos
sessed me in the beginning of his ways."f Hence
Mary was rightly called by Dionyshis, Archbish
op of Alexandria: One and sole daughter of life:
Una et sola filia vits6;"J diifering in this from
others, who being born in sin, are daughters of
death.

Moreover, it was meet that the eternal Fa*
ther should create her in his grace, since he des
tined her for the restorer of the lost world, and
mediatrix of peace between man and God; and
thus the holy Fathers name her, and especially

St. John Damascene, who thus addresses her. Oh
blessed Virgin, thou art born to procure the sal
vation of the whole world !* St. Bernard saya
that Mary was already prefigured in the ark of
Noe; for as by the ark men were saved from the
deluge, so by Mary we are saved from the ship
wreck of sin; but with this difference, that by
means of the ark few only were saved, but by
means of Mary the whole human race has been
redeemed. f Hence it is that Mary is called by
St. Athanasius: The new Eve, the mother of life:
Nova Eva, mater vitse."J A new Eve, because
the first was the mother of death, but the most
holy Virgin is the mother of life. St. Theo-
phanes, Bishop of Nice, exclaims: Hail to thee,
who hast taken away the sorrow of Eve.
St. Basil calls her: the peacemaker between God
and men. || St. Ephrem: The peacemaker x>f the
whole world. ^f

Now, certainly he who treats of peace should
not be an enemy of the offended person, still less
an accomplice of his crime. St. Gregory says,
that to appease the judge his enemy certainly
must not be chosen, for instead of appeasing him
he would enrage him more. Therefore, aa Mary

was to be the mediatrix of peace between God
and man, there was every reason why she should
not appear as a sinner and enemy of God, but as
his friend, and pure from sin.

Besides, it was fitting that God should preserve
her from original sin, since he destined her to
bruise the head of the infernal serpent, who, by
seducing our first parents, brought death upon all
men, as our Lord predicted: "I will put enmities
between thee and the woman, and thy seed and
her seed; she shall crush thy head."* Now, if
Mary was to be the strong woman brought into
the world to crush Lucifer, surely it was not
fitting that she should first be conquered by
Lucifer, and made his felave, but rather that she
should be free from every stain, and from all
subjection to the enemy. As lie had in his pride
already corrupted the whole human race, he
would also corrupt the pure soul of this Virgin.
But may the divine goodness be ever praised,
who prevented her with so much grace, to the
end that remaining free from every stain of sin,
she could overthrow and confound his pride, as
St. Augustine says, or whoever may have been
the author of that commentary upon Genesis: As
the devil was the head from whence original sin
proceeded, that head Mary crushed, because no
sin ever entered the soul of the Virgin, and
therefore she was free from all stain.}- St.

Bonaventure still more clearly expresses the
same: It was meet that the blessed Virgin Mary,
by whom our shame was to be removed, should
conquer the devil, and there she should not
yield to him in the least degree.*

But it was especially fitting that the eternal
Father should preserve his daughter from the
sins of Adam, because he destined her for the
mother of his only begotten Son. Thou wast
preordained in the mind of God, before every
creature, to bring forth God himself made nian.f
If for no other reason, then, at least for the hon
or of his Son, who was God, the Father would
create her pure from every stain. The angelic
Doctor St. Thomas says, that all things ordained
by God must be holy, and pure from every
defilement.J If David, when he was planning
the temple of Jerusalem with a magnificence
worthy the Lord, said; "Not for man a house
is prepared, but for God;"now, how much
greater cause have we to believe that the great
Creator, having destined Mary to be the mother

of his own Son, would adorn her soul with every
grace, that it might be a worthy habitation for
a God. God, the creator of all things, affirms
blessed Denis the Carthusian, about to construct
a worthy habitation for his Son, adorned her
with all pleasing gifts.* And the holy Church
herself assures us of this, when she affirms that
God prepared the body and soul of the Virgin
to be, on earth, a habitation worthy of his only
begotten Son. "Omnipotent, eternal God!"
thus the holy Church prays, "who, by the co
operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the
body and soul of the glorious Virgin mother,
that she might become a worthy habitation for
thy Son,"&c.f

It is acknowledged to be the greatest glory of
sons to be bora of noble parents. The glory
of children are their fathers: "Gloria filiorum,
patres eorum."J So that in the world the im
putation of small fortune and little science is
more endurable than that of low birth; for the
poor man may become rich by industry, the ig
norant learned by study, but he who is of low
birth can hardly become noble; and if ever this
occurs, the old and original reproach is liable
always to be revived. How can we then believe

that- God, when he was able to give his Son a
noble mother, by preserving her from sin, would
have consented that he should be born of a
mother defiled with sin, and permit Lucifer to
reproach him with the opprobrium of being born
of a mother who once was his slave and an en-
<3my of God! No, the Lord has not permitted
this, but he has well provided for the honor of
his Son, by ordaining that his mother should al
ways be immaculate, that she might be a fit
mother for such a Son. The Greek Church con
firms this: "By a singular providence, God or
dained that the most holy Virgin should be per
fectly pure from the very beginning of her life,
as was becoming her who was to be a mother
worthy of Christ."*

It is a common axiom among theologians, that
no gift has ever been granted to any creature
with which the blessed Virgin was not also
enriched. St. Bernard thus expresses it: We
certainly cannot suspect that what has been
bestowed on the chosen among mortals should
be withheld from the blessed Virgin. ( And St.
Thomas of Villanova says: Nothing was ever
given to any of the saints that did not shine
more pre-eminently in Mary from the beginning
of her life.J And if it be true, according to the

celebrated saying of St. John Damascene, that
there is an infinite distance between the mother
of God and the servants of God,* it certainly
must be supposed, as St. Thomas teaches, that
God has conferred greater graces of every
kind on the mother than on the servants.f Now,
asks St. Anselm, the great defender of the priv
ileges of the immaculate Mary, this being grant
ed, was the wisdom of God unable to prepare a
pure abode for his Son, free from every human
stain?J Has it been in the power of God, con
tinues St. Anselm, to preserve the angels of
heaven unstained amidst the ruin of so many,
and could he not preserve tue mother of his Son
and the queen of angels from the common fall
of man? Could God, I add, give the grace
even to an Eve to come into the world immacu
late, and afterwards be unable to bestow it
on Mary?

Ah, no, God could do it and has done it, since
it was altogether fitting, as the above-named St.
Anselm says, that this Virgin, to whom God
was to give his only Son, should be adorned
with such purity, that it not only should surpass
the purity of all men and of all angels, but

should be second in greatness only to that
of God.* And still more plainly does St. John
Damascene declare, that he preserved the soul
as well as the body of this Virgin, as beseemed
her who was about to receive God into her
womb, for he being holy, dwells only with the
holy.f Thus the eternal Father could say to
this beloved daughter: "As the lily among the
thorns, so is my love among the daughters."!
Daughter among all my other daughters, thou
art like a lily among thorns; for they are all
stained by sin, but thou wert ever immaculate,
and ever my friend.

Second Point. In the second place, it was be
fitting the Son that Mary, as his mother, should
be preserved from sin. It is not permitted to
other children to select a mother according to
their good pleasure; but if this were ever grant
ed to any one, who would choose a slave for
his mother when he might have a queen? who a
peasant, when he might have a noble? who an
enemy of God, when he might have a friend of
God? If, then, the Son of God alone could se
lect a mother according to his pleasure, it must
be considered as certain that he would choose one
befitting a God. Thus St. Bernard expresses it:

The Creator of men to be born of man must
choose such a mother for himself as he knew to
be most fit.* And as it was, indeed, fitting that
a most pure God should have a mother pure from
all sin, such was she created, as St. Bemardine
of Sienna says, in these words: The third kind
of sanctification is that which is called maternal,
and this removes every stain of original sin.
This was in the blessed Virgin. God, indeed,
created her, by the nobility of her nature as well
as by the perfection of grace, such as it was be
fitting that his mother should be.f And here
the words of the apostle may be applied: "For
it was fitting that we should have such a high
priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from
sinners,"J&c. Here a learned author remarks,
that according to St. Paul, it was meet that our
Redeemer should not only be separated from sin,
but also from sinners, as St. Thomas explains it:
It was meet that he who came to take away sins,
should be separate from sinners as far as con
cerns the sin of which Adam was guilty. But
how could it be said of Jesus Christ that he was

separate from sinners if his mother was a sinner?
St. Ambrose says: Not from earth, but from
heaven, Christ selected this vessel through which
he should descend, and consecrated the temple
of modesty.* The saint alludes to the words of
St. Paul: "The first man was of the earth,
earthy: the second man from heaven, heaven
ly."! St. Ambrose calls the divine mother; A
celestial vessel: not that Mary was other than
earthly in her nature, as heretics have sometimes
fancied, but celestial through grace, for she was
superior to the angels of heaven in sanctity and
purity, as it was meet she should be, when a
King of glory was to dwell in her womb; as
John the Baptist revealed to St. Bridget: "It
was befitting the King of glory to remain in no
vessel but one purer and more select than all an
gels and men;"J to which we may add what
the eternal Father himself said to the same
saint: "Mary was a clean and an unclean vessel.
Clean because she was wholly fair, but unclean
because she was born of sinners; although she
was conceived without sin, that my Son should
be born without sin." And these last words

are worthy of note, that Mary was conceived
without sin, so that the divine Son might be con
ceived without sin. Not that Jesus Christ
could be capable of contracting sin, but that he
might not suffer the opprobrium of having a
mother infected with sin, and a slave of the dev
il.

The Holy Spirit says, that the honor of the
Father is th glory of the Son, and the dishon
or of the Fat ler is the shame of the Son.* And
St. Augusth e says, that Jesus preserved the
body of Mary from being corrupted after death,
since it would have dishonored him if corrup
tion had destroyed that virginal flesh from which
he had clothed himself.f Corruption is the re
proach of the human condition, from which the
nature of Mary was exempted, in order that Je
sus might be exempt from it, for the flesh of Je
sus is the flesh of Mary. Now, if it were a dis
honor for Jesus Christ to be born of a mother
whose body was subject to the corruption of the
flesh, how much greater would be the shame had
he been born of a mother whose soul was cor
rupted by sin! Moreover, as it is true that the
flesh of Jesus is the same as that of Mary, in
guch a manner (as the saint himself here adds)
that the flesh of the Saviour after his resurreo-

tion was the very same which he received from
his mother;* therefore St. Arnold of Carnoten-
sis says: The flesh of Mary and of Christ is one,
and hence I esteem the glory of the Son to be
not so much common to both as the same.f
Now, this being true, if the blessed Virgin had
been conceived in sin, although the Son had not
contracted the stain of sin, yet there would al
ways have been a certain stain from the union
of himself with flesh once infected by guilt, a
vessel of uncleaaness and a slave of Lucifer.

Mary was not only the mother, but a worthy
mother of the Saviour. Thus all the holy
Fathers name her. St. Bernard says: Thou
alone hast been found worthy, that in thy vir
ginal hall the King of kings should choose his
first mansion.]; And St. Thomas of Villanova:
Before she had conceived she was fitted to be
the mother of God. The holy Church herself
attests that the Virgin merited to be the mother
of Jesus Christ.J Explaining which passage,
St. Thomas of Aquinas remarks, that Mary

could not merit the incarnation of the Word,
but with divine grace she merited such perfection
as would render her worthy to become the moth
er of a God;* as St. Peter Damian also writes:
Her singular sanctity merited (out of pure
grace) that she should alone be judged worthy
to receive a God.f

Now, this being granted, that Mary was a
mother worthy of God, what excellency and
what perfection, says St. Thomas of Villanova^
were befitting her! J The same angelic Doctor
declares, that when God elects any one to a
certain dignity, he also fits him for it; hence,
he says, that God having chosen Mary for his
mother, certainly rendered her worthy of it by
his grace, according to what the angels said to
her: "Thou hast found grace with God, behold
thou shalt conceive, etc." And from this the
saint infers that the Virgin never committed
any actual sin, not even a venial sin, otherwise,
he sayg, s la would not have been a worthy

mother of Jesus Christ, since the ignominy
of the mother would also be that of the Son, if
his mother had been a sinner.* Now, if Mary,
by committing only one venial offence, which
does not deprive the soul of divine grace, might
be said not to have been a worthy mother of
God, how much more if she had been stained
with original sin, which would have rendered
her an enemy of God, and a slave of the devil!
Therefore St. Augustine says in a celebrated pas
sage of his writings, that speaking of Mary, he
would make no mention of sins, for the honor of
that Lord whom she merited for her Son, and
through whom she had the grace to conquer sin
in every way.f

We should therefore hold it for certain, that
the incarnate Word selected for himself a befit
ting mother, and one of whom he need not be
ashamed, as St. Peter Damian expresses it.J
And also St. Proculus: He inhabited those
bowels which he had created, so as to be free
from any mark of infamy. Jesus felt it no
reproach to hear himself called by the Jews the

son of a poor woman: "Is not his mother called
Mary?"* for he came on earth to give an ex
ample of humility and patience. But on the
other hand, it would doubtless have been a re
proach to him if it could have been said by the
demons: Was he not born from a mother who
was a sinner, and once our slave?f It would be
considered most unfit that Jesus Christ should
have been born of a woman deformed and maim
ed in body, or possessed by evil spirits; but how
much more unseemly that he should be born of a
woman once deformed in soul, and possessed by
Lucifer.

Ah, that God who is wisdom itself well knew
how to prepare upon the earth a fit dwelling for
him to inhabit: "Wisdom hath built herself a
house,"J "The Most High hath sanctified his
own tabernacle." "God will help it in the morn
ing early." The Lord, says David, sanctified
this his habitation in the morning early; that is,
from the beginning of her life, to render her
worthy of himself; for it was not befitting a
God who is holy to select a house that was not
holy: Holiness becometh thy house: " Domum
tuum decet sanctitudo."|| And if he himself
declares that he will never enter into a malicious

Jioul, and into a body subject to sins," * how
can we think that the Son of God would have
chosen to inhabit the soul and body of Mary
without first sanctifying her and preserving her
from every stain of sin? for, as St. Thomas
teaches us, the eternal Word inhabited not only
the soul, but the body of Mary. f The Church
also sings: Oh Lord, thou didst not shrink from
the Virgin s womb: "Non horruisti Virginia
uterum." Indeed, a God would have shrunk
from incarnating himself in the womb of an
Agnes, of a Gertrude, of a Theresa, since those
virgins, although holy, were for a time, stained
with original sin; but he did not shrink from be
coming man in the womb of Mary, because this
chosen Virgin was always pure from every guilt,
and never possessed by the infernal serpent.
Hence St. Augustine wrote: The Son of God
has built himself no house more worthy than
Mary, who was never taken by the enemy, nor
robbed of her ornaments. J

On the other hand, St. Cyril of Alexandria
says: Who has ever heard of an architect build
ing a house for his own use and then giving the
first possession of it to his greatest enemy?

Certainly our Lord, who, as St. Methodius de
clares, gave us the command to honor our parents,
would not fail, when he became man, like our
selves, to observe it himself, by bestowing on
his mother every grace and honor.* Hence St.
Augustine says, that we must certainly believe
that Jesus Christ preserved from corruption the
body of Mary after death, as it has been said
above; for if he had not done so, he would not
have observed the law, which, as it commands
respect to the mother, so it condemns disrespect. f
How much less mindful would Jesus have been
of the honor of his mother, if he had not pre
served her from the sin of Adam! That Son
would, indeed, commit a sin, says Father Thom
as d Argentina, an Augustinian, who, being able
to preserve his mother from original sin, should
not do so; now that which would be sinful in us,
says the same author, cannot be esteemed
befitting the Son of God, namely, if he should
not have created his mother immaculate when
he was able to do so. Ah, no, exclaims Gerson,
since thou, the supreme Prince, dost wish to
have a mother, honor will certainly be due to her
from thee: but this law would not appear well
fulfilled if thou shouldst permit her, who was to

be the dwelling of all purity, to fall into th
abomination of original sin.*

Moreover, the divine Son, as we know, came
into the world to redeem Mary before all others,
as we read in St. Bernardine of Sienna.f And
as there are two modes of redeeming, as St. Au
gustine teaches, one by raising the fallen; the
other, by preventing from f ailing ;J doubtless,
the latter is the most noble. More nobly, says
St. Antoninus, is he redeemed who is prevented
from falling, than he who is raised after f ailing ;
because in this way is avoided the injury or
stain that the soul always contracts by a fall.
Therefore we ought to believe that Mary was
redeemed in the nobler manner, as became the
mother of a God, as St. Bonaventure expresses
it; for Frassen proves the sermon on the assump
tion to have been written by that holy doctor. |
We must believe that by a new mode of sancti-
fication the Holy Spirit redeemed her at the first
moment of her conception, and preserved her by
a special grace from original sin, which was not

in her, but would have been in her.* On thii
subject Cardinal Cusano has elegantly written:
Others have had a deliverer, but the holy Virgin
had a predeliverer;f others have had a Redeem
er to deliver them from sin already contracted,
but the holy Virgin had a Redeemer who, be
cause he was her Son, prevented her from
contracting sin.

In a word, to conclude this point, Hugo of St.
Victor says, the tree is known by its fruit. If
the Lamb was always immaculate, always im
maculate must the mother also have been.J
Hence this same doctor saluted Mary by calling
her: The worthy mother of a worthy Son: "O
digna digni." By which he meant to say, that
none but Mary was the worthy mother of such
a Son, and that none but Jesus was the worthy
Son of such a mother. Therefore let us say
with St. Ildephonsus: Give suck, then, oh Mary,
give suck to thy Creator; give suck to him who
created thee, and hath made thee so pure and
perfect that thou hast merited that he should re
ceive from thee the human nature. ||

Third Point. If, then, it became the Father
^O preserve Mary as his daughter from sin,
and the Son because she was his mother, it also
became the Holy Spirit to preserve her as his
spouse. Mary, says St. Augustine, was the
only one who merited to be called the mother
and spouse of God.* For, as St. Anselm affirms,
the Holy Spirit came bodily upon Mary and
rested in her, enriching her with grace beyond
all creatures, dwelt in her, and made his spouse
queen of heaven and of earth. f As thesaint ex
presses it: He was with her really, as to the ef
fect, since he came to form from her immaculate
body the immaculate body of Jesus Christ, as
the archangel predicted: The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee.J For this reason, says St.
Thomas, Mary is called the temple of the Lord,
the sanctuary of the Hoiy Spirit, because, by
the operation of the Holy Spirit, she was made
mother of the incarnate Word.

Now, if an excellent painter were allowed to
choose a bride as beautiful or as deformed as he
himself might paint her, how great would be
his solicitude to make her as beautiful as pos
sible! Who, then, will say that t>he Holy Spirit

has not dealt thus with Mary, and that, having
it in his power to make this his spouse as
beautiful as it became her to be, he has not
done so? Yes, thus it was fitting he should do,
and thus he did, as the Lord himself attested
when praising Mary; he said to her: "Thou art
all fair, oh my love; and there is not a spot in
thee;"* which words, as we learn from a Lapide,
St. Ildephonsus, and St. Thomas, explain as
properly to be understood of Mary. St. Bernar-
dine of Sienna,f and St. Lawrence Justiriian,J
also declare that the passage above quoted is
precisely to be understood of her immaculate
conception; hence the Idiot says: Thou art all
fair, oh most glorious Virgin, not in part, but
wholly; and the stain of sin, whether mortal, or
venial, or original, is not upon thee.

The Holy Spirit signifies the same thing, when
he called this his spouse: "A garden enclosed, a
fountain sealed up.*|| Mary, says St. Jerome,
was properly this enclosed garden and sealed
fountain; for the enemies never entered to harm
her, but she was always uninjured, remaining holy
in soul and body. T And in like manner St. Ber-

nard said, addressing the blessed Virgin: Thou
art an enclosed garden, where the sinner s hand
never entered to rob it of its flowers.*

We know that this divine spouse loved Mary
more than all the other saints and angels united,
as Father Suarez, St. Lawrence Justinian, and
others affirm. He loved her from the beginning,
and exalted her in sanctity above all creatures,
as David expresses it: "The foundations thereof
are in the holy mountains; the Lord loveth the
gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.
. . . This man is born in her, and the Highest
himself hath founded her."f All which words
signify that Mary was holy from her conception.
The same thing is signified by what the Holy
Spirit himself says in another place: Many
daughters have gathered together riches; tbou
hast surpassed them all."J If Mary has sur
passed all in the riches of grace, she then possess
ed original justice, as Adam and the angels had
it. "There are young maidens without number:
one is my dove, my perfect one (the Hebrew
reads, my uncorrupted, my immaculate) ; she is
the only one of her mother." All just souls

are children of divine grace; but among these,
Mary was the Dove without the bitter gall of
sin, the Perfect One without the stain of original
sin, the one conceived in grace.

The angel, therefore, before she was the
mother of God, already found her full of grace,
and thus saluted her: Hail, full of grace: "Ave
gratia plena." Commenting upon which words,
Sophronius writes, that to the other saints grace
is given in part, but to the Virgin it was given
in fulness.* So that, as St. Thomas says, grace
not only made the soul, but also the flesh of
Mary holy, that with it the Virgin might clothe
the eternal Word.f Now by all this we are to
understand, as Peter of Celles remark*, that
Mary, from the moment of her conception, was
enriched by the Holy Spirit, and filled with
divine grace. J Hence, as St. Peter Damian says:
She being elected and pre-elected by God, was
borne off by the Holy Spirit for himself.
Borne off, as the saint expresses it, to explain
the swiftness of the Divine Spirit, in making her
his spouse, before Lucifer should take possession
of her.

I will at length close tbis discourse, in which
I have been more diffused than in the others,
because our little congregation has for its prin
cipal protectress the most holy Virgin Mary,
precisely under this title of her immaculate con
ception. I will close, I say, by declaring in a
few words what are the reasons which make me
certain, and which, as I think, should make every
one certain of this pious sentiment, so glorious
to the divine mother that she was free from
original sin.

There are many doctors who maintain that
Mary was even exempt from contracting the debt
of sin; such as Cardinal Galatino,* Cardinal Cu-
sano,f De PonteJ Salasar, CatherinusJ Nova-
rino,^" Viva,** De Lugo, Kgidius, Richelius, and
others. Now this opinion is very probable; for
if it is true that in the will of Adam, as head of
the human race, were included the wills of all, as
Gonet,f f Habert,Jt an d others hold it to be prob
able, on the testimony of these words of St.
Paul: "In whom (Adam) all have sinned. " If
this, then, is probable, it is also probable that
Mary did not contract the debt of sin; for God
having greatly distinguished her in the order of
grace from the rest of mankind, it should be
piously believed, that in the will of Adam, th
will of Mary was not included.

* De Arcan. 1. 7, c. 18. t L. 8, Exerc. 8.

$ Lib. 2, Cant, ex to. J De V. Cone. c. 7, s. 7.

I De pecc. orig. c. ult. T Umbra. Virg. c. 10, exc. 88.

** P. 8, d. 2, q. 2, a. 8. tt Man. to. 3, tr. 5, c. 6, s. ft.

i To. 8, de pecc. c. 7.

IS Omnes In quo (Ada) peccaverunt, Horn. v.

362 GLORIES OP MARY.

This opinion is only probable, but I adhere t
it, as being rnore glorious for my Lady. But,
then, I hold it for certain thai Mary has not con
tracted the sin of Adam, as Cardinal Everard,*
Duval,f Raynauld,J Lossada, Viva,] and many
others hold it for certain, and even proximately
definable as an article of faith, as they express
it. I omit, however, the revelations that confirm
this opinion; especially those made to St. Bridget,
approved by Cardinal Torrecremata, and by four
supreme Pontiffs, and which we read in the sixth
book of the above-mentioned revelations, in vari
ous places.^ But I can by no means omit to men
tion here the opinions of the holy Fathers on this
point, in order to prove how uniform they have
been in conceding this privilege to the divine
mother. St. Ambrose says : Receive me not from
Sarah, but from Mary, as an uncorrupted Virgin,
a Virgin through grace preserved pure from
every stain of sin.** Ongen, speaking of Mary,
says: Neither was she infected by the breath of
the venomous serpent.ff And St. Ephrem: She
is immaculate, and remote from every taint of
sin.JJ St. Augustine, meditating on the words
of the angel, "Hail, full of grace," says: By these

words he shows her to be entirely {note, entirely,
excluded from the wrath of the first sentence,
and restored to the full grace of benediction.*
St. Jerome: That cloud was never in darkness,
but always in the light.f St. Cyprian, on Psalm
Ixxvii., or whoever may be the author of that
treatise, says: Neither did justice suffer that ves
sel of election to be open to common injuries,
for, being far exalted above others, she was a
partaker of their nature, but not of their sin.J
St. Amphilochius also says: He who created the
first virgin without reproach, also created the sec
ond without stain or crime. Sophronius: There
fore she is called the immaculate Virgin, because
she was in no manner corrupted.] St. Ildephon-
sus: It is certain that she was exempt from orig
inal sin.*!" St. John of Damascus: To this para
dise the serpent had no entrance.** St. Peter
Damian: The flesh of the Virgin, received from

Adam, was free from Adam s taint of sin.* St.
Bruno: This is that uncorrupted earth which the
Lord has blessed, and hence she is pure from all
contagion of sin.f St. Bonaventure, also: Our
Lady was full of preventing grace in her sancti-
fication, namely, of grace preservative against
the defilement of original sin.J St. Bernardine
of Sienna: For it is not to be believed that the
Son of God himself would choose to be born of
a Virgin, and assume her flesh, if she were de
filed in any way with original sin.g St. Law
rence Justinian: From her conception she was
prevented with blessing.] So the Idiot, upon
those words, Thou hast found grace, " Invenisti
gratiam," says: Thou hast found peculiar grace,
oh most sweet Virgin, for thou wast preserved
from original stain, &c.^ And many other
Doctors express the same.

But there are two arguments which conclu
sively prove the truth of this opinion. The
first is the universal consent of the faithful on

tliis point. Father Egidius, of the Presenta
tion, asserts that all the religious orders follow
the same opinion:* and although in the order of
St. Dominic, says a modern author, there are
ninety-two writers who are of the contrary^
opinion, yet one hundred and thirty-six are of
ours .But what should especially persuade UP;
that our pious opinion is conformable to the
common opinion of Catholics, is the declaration
of Pope Alexander VII., in the celebrated bull,
"Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum," issued in the
year 1661, namely: "This devotion and worship
to the mother of God again increased and was
propagated, ... .so that the universities having
embraced this opinion (that is, the pious one),
almost all Catholics embrace it."f And, in fact,
this opinion is defended by the universities of
the Sorbonne, of Alcala, of Salamanca, of Coim-
bra, of Cologne, of Mayence, and of Naples, and
by many others, in which every one who
graduates binds himself by an oath to the de
fence of the immaculate Mary. The learned
Petavius rests his proof of the immaculate con
ception mainly upon this argument of the com
mon consent of the faithful. J Which argument,
writes the most learned Bishop Julius Torni,
cannot fail to convince; for, in fact, if nothing

else, the common consent of the faithful renders
us certain of the sanctification of Mary in the
womb, and of the glorious assumption of Let
soul and body in heaven ; why, then, should not
this same common sentiment render us certain
of her immaculate conception?*

By another reason, still stronger than the
first, we are assured of the truth of the fact, that
the Virgin is exempt from the original stain,
namely, the festival instituted by the universal
Church in honor of her immaculate Conception.
And with regard to this I see, on the one hand,
that the Church celebrates the first moment
when her soul was created and infused into the
body, as Alexander VII. declares in the bull
above quoted, in which it is expressed that the
Church prescribes the same veneration for the
conception of Mary, as the pious opinion concedes
to her, which holds her to be conceived without
original sin. On the other hand I know it to be
certain that the Church cannot honor any thing
unholy, according to the decrees of the sovereign
pontiffs St. Leof and St. Eusebius : "In the
Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always
been preserved pure from stain.J" And all the
theologians, including St. Augustine, St. Ber
nard, and St. Thomas, teach the same thing. The
latter makes use of the argument of the festival

of lier birth, instituted by the Church, to prort
that Mary was sanctified before birth; and
therefore says: The Church celebrates the na
tivity of the blessed Virgin; but no feast is
celebrated in the Church except in honor of
some saint; therefore the blessed Virgin
was sanctified in the womb.* Now if it is
certain, as the angelic Doctor declares,
that Mary was sanctified in the womb,
because for this reason the holy Church
celebrates her birth ; why should we not then
hold it for certain that Mary was preserved
from original sin from the first moment of her
conception, now that we know that in this
sense the Church herself celebrates the festival
of it ?f In confirmation, too, of this great priv
ilege of Mary, it is well known what numer
ous and remarkable graces our Lord has been
pleased to dispense daily in the kingdom of
Naples, by means of the little pictures of the
Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. I could
relate many that took place under the eyes of
the fathers of our own congregation ; but I will
relate only two, which are truly wonderful.

EXAMPLE.

There came a woman to one of the houses of
our little congregation, in this kingdom, to tell

one of the fathers that her husband had not been
to confession for many years, and that she did
not know how to bring him back to his duties,
for whenever she spoke to him of confession he
beat her. The father told her to give him a
little picture of Mary immaculate. Evening
came, and the woman again begged her husband
to go to confession; but the man being as deaf as
before, she gave him the picture. He had no
sooner received it than he said: "When will you
take me to confession, for I am ready ? " The
wife, at that sudden change, wept for joy. In
the morning he came to our church, and when
the father asked him how long it was since he
had been to confession, he answered: "Twenty-
eight years." "And what has brought you to
confession this morning?" said the father.
"Father," he said, "I was obstinate, but yes
terday my wife gave me a picture of the
Madonna, and immediately I felt my heart
changed, so that last night appeared to me a
thousand years long, and I thought the day
would never come when I might go to con
fession." He made his confession with great
compunction, changed his life, and continued
for a long time to go often to confession to
the same father.

In another place, in the diocese of Salerno,
during one of our missions, there was a certain
man who had a great enmity against one who
?nad offended him. One of our fathers spoke to
him, and exhorted him to pardon the

GLORIES OF MARY. 369

"* Father, have you ever seen me at the sermon?
No, you have not, and for this reason I stay
away: I see that I am damned, but I do not
^ish it otherwise, I must have revenge." The
father made every effort to convert him, but
rinding that he was wasting his words, " Take, *
he said to him, (( this little picture of the
Madonna." " Of what use," said he, " is this
picture?" But he took it, and as if he had never
refused to pardon his enemy, he said to the
missionary, " Father, do you wish anything more
than reconciliation? for that I am ready." The
next morning was appointed for the reconcilia
tion; but when the morning came, his mind was
changed, and he would do nothing. The father
offered him another picture. He did not wish
for it, and took it unwillingly; but behold, no
sooner had he taken it, than he immediately
said, "Let us be reconciled: where is Mastro-
datti?" He then forgave his enemy, and after
wards made his confession.

PRAYER.

All, my immaculate Lady, I rejoice with thee,
seeing thee endowed with so great purity. I
give thanks, and make the resolution always to
give thanks to our common Creator, for having
preserved thee from every stain of sin, as I cer
tainly believe; and to defend this great and pe
culiar privilege of thy immaculate conception I
am ready, and swear to give even my life if it
is necessary. I wish that all the world might

*70 GLORIES OP MARY.

know thee, and acknowledge thee for that
beatiful aurora, which was always resplendent
with the divine light; that chosen ark of salva
tion, safe from the common shipwreck of sin;
for that perfect and immaculate dove, as thy
divine spouse declared thee; that inclosed gar*
den, which was the delight of God; that foun
tain sealed up, which the enemy never entered
to trouble; finally, that spotless lily, which thou
art, springing up among the thorns of the
children of Adam; for whereas all are born defiled
with original sin, and enemies of God, thou
wast born pure, all spotless, and in all things a
friend of thy Creator.

Let me, then, also praise thee as thy God
himself hath praised thee when he said: Thou
art all fair, and there is not a spot in thee:
"Tota pulchra es et macula non est in te." Oh
most pure dove, all white, all beautiful, and al
ways the friend of God: <% O quam pulchra es, arni
ca mea, quam pulchra es." Oh most sweet, most
amiable, immaculate Mary, thou who art so
beautiful in the eyes of our Lord, do not disdain
to look with thy pitying eye upon the loathsome
wounds of my soul. Behold me, pity me, and
heal rne. Oh powerful magnet of hearts, draw
also my miserable heart to thee. Thou who
even from the first moment of thy life wast
pure and beautiful in the sight of God, have
pity on me, for I was not only born in sin, but
after baptism, I again have defiled my soul with
sin Will God, who hath chosen thee for hii

GLORIES OP MABT. Z?l

child, hia mother, and his spouse, and therefore
hath preserved thee from every stain, refuse
any grace to thee? Virgin immaculate, you
must save me; I will say to thee with St. Philip
Neri, make me always to remember
thee and do not forget me. It seema
to me a thousand years before I shall go
to behold thy beauty in paradise, to praise and
love thee more, my mother, my queen, my be
loved, most lovely, most sweet, most pure, im
maculate Mary. Amen.

DISCOURSE II.

ON THE BIRTH OF MARY.

Mary teas born a saint, and a great saint* for great was tht
grace with which our Lord enriched her from the begin*
ning, and great was the fidelity with which Mary at onet
corresponded with it.

MEN are accustomed to celebrate the birth of
their children with joy and feasting; but rather
ought they to weep and give signs of grief and
mourning, considering that these are born, not
only destitute of merits and of reason, but
moreover infected by sin and children of wrath,
and therefore condemned to misery and death.
But with reason do we celebrate, with feasts
and universal praise, the birth of our infant
Mary, for she came into this world an infant in
age, it is true, but great in merits and in virtue

372 GLORIES OF MARY.

Mary was born a saint, and a great saint. But
to conceive the degree of sanctity in which sh
was born, we must call to mind, in the first
place, how great was the first grace with which
God enriched Mary; and in the second, with
how great fidelity Mary at once corresponded
with God.

First Point. Commencing with the first point,
it is certain that the soul of Mary was the most
beautiful soul that God ever created; indeed,
Dext to the incarnation of the Word, this work
was the greatest and most worthy of himself
that the Omnipotent could accomplish in this
world a work, as St. Peter Damian terms it,
which God alone excels: "Opus quod solus Dens
supergreditur." Hence it was that the divine
grace did not descend upon Mary in drops as
upon the other saints, but as David predicted:
Like rain upon the fleece: "Sicut pluvia in vel-
lus.* The soul of Mary was like wool, that
happily imbibed all that great shower of graces
without losing a drop. The holy Virgin, says
St. Basil, drew into herself all the graces of the
Holy Spirit.f Hence she herself said by the
mouth of Ecclesiasticus: My abode is in the
fulness of saints: "In plenitudine Sanctorum de-
tentio mea;"J which St. Bonaventure thus ex
plains: I have in fulness all that the other sainti
have in part; and St. Vincent Ferrer, speaking

especially of the sanctity of Mary before her
birth, said, that she surpassed all the saints and
angels in sanctity.*

The grace of the blessed Virgin surpassed the
grace not only of each saint in particular, but of
all the saints and angels together, as the most
learned Father Francis Pepe, of the Society of
Jesus, proves, in his admirable work on the gran
deur of Jesus and Mary;f and he asserts that
this opinion, so glorious for our queen, is now
common and established among modern the
ologians, as Carthagena, Suarez, Spinelli, Recu-
pito, Guerra, and others, who have avowedly ex
amined it, which was not done by the ancients;
and he further relates, that the divine mother
sent Father Maryin Guttierez to thank Father
Suarez in her name for having, with so much
courage, defended this most probable opinion,
which Father Segneri asserts, in his work enti
tled "The Servant of Mary," was maintained by
the common consent of the Faculty of Sala
manca.

Now if this opinion is universal and certain,
the other opinion is also very probable, name
ly, that Mary received from the first moment of
her immaculate conception this grace, superior
to the grace of all the saints and angels togeth
er. This the same Father Suarez powerfully
defends, and Father Spinelli, Recupito,J and
Colombiere, follow him. But besides the an-

thority of theologians, there are yet two great
and convincing reasons sufficient to prove the
above-mentioned opinion. The first reason is,
that Mary was chosen by God to be the mother of
the divine Word, hence blessed Denis the Car
thusian says, that having been elected to an or
der superior to all creatures (for in a certain
sense the dignity of mother of God, as Father
Suarez affirms, belongs to the order of the by-
postatic union), gifts of a superior order were
justly bestowed upon her from the beginning of
her life, so that her graces far exceeded those
granted to all other creatures. And, indeed, it
cannot be doubted, that at the same time, when
in the divine decrees the person of the eternal
Word was predestined to become man, a mother
was also destined for him, from whom he was to
take the human nature, and this was our infant
Mary. Now St. Thomas teaches that the Lord
gives to every one grace proportioned to that
dignity for which he destines him;* St. Paul
taught this before, when he said: "Who also
hath made us fit ministers of the New Testa
ment;"! signifying to us that the Apostles receiv
ed from God gifts proportioned to the great of
fice to which they were elected. St. Bernardine
of Sienna adds, that when a man is chosen by
God for any state, he not only receives the dis
positions requisite for that, but also the gifts

necessary to fill the office in a becoming man
ner.* Now if Mary was chosen to be mother of
God, it was meet that God should adorn her,
even from the first moment, with an immense
grace, and of an order superior to the grace of
all other men and angels; it being requisite that
the grace should correspond with the most high
and immense dignity to which God exalted her;
in which opinion all theologians agree with St.
Thomas, who says: The Virgin was elected to be
the mother of God, and therefore there can be
no doubt that God, by his grace, rendered her
fit for it.f Hence Mary, before being made moth-
er of God, was adorned with a sanctity so per
fect, that it rendered her fit for this great dig
nity. In the blessed Virgin, therefore, says the
holy doctor, was a perfection, as it were prepara
tive, by which she was fitted to become the
mother of Christ; and this was the perfection
of sanctification.J

And St. Thomas had before said, that Mary
was called full of grace, not on account of the
degree of grace, since she had not grace in its
highest possible degree; for even the habitual
grace of Jesus Christ (as the same doctor says)

was not the highest possible, so that God, by
his absolute power, could not make it greater; al
though it was grace sufficient to correspond to
the end for which his humanity was destined by
the divine Wisdom, that is, for the union with
the person of the Word.* The divine power, al
though it may form something greater and
better than the habitual grace of Christ, yet
could make nothing that should be destined to
any thing greater than the personal union of the
only begotten Son of the Father, to which
union such a measure of grace would sufficiently
correspond, according to the idea of divine wis
dom. f

The same angelic Doctor teaches, that the
divine power is so great, that however much it
gives, there always remains something more to
give; and although the natural power of the crea
ture in receiving is in itself limited, so that it
can be entirely filled, yet the power of its
obedience to the divine will is unlimited, and God
can always increase its fulness by making it
more capable of receiving;! and hence, to return
to our proposition, St. Thomas declares, that the
blessed Virgin, although not full of grace, in re-

epect to absolute grace; yet is called full of grace
in respect to herself, since she possessed a grace
immense, sufficient, and corresponding to her
great dignity, which rendered her fit to become
the mother of a God.* Hence the blessed Fer
nandez says, that the measure by which we can
know how great was the grace communicated
to Mary is her dignity as mother of God.f

Justly, then, did David say, that the foun
dations of this city of God, Mary, should be laid
upon the summits of the mountains: "Funda-
menta ejus in montibus sanctis;" J by which we
are to understand that the beginning of the life
of Mary was more exalted than the completed
jfives of all the saints put together. "The Lord
loveth the gates of Sion," the prophet continues,
"above all the tabernacles of Jacob." And
David himself gave this as the reason, namely,
that God was to make himself man in her vir
ginal womb: Man was born in her: "Homo natus
est in ea." Hence it was fitting that God should
give to this Virgin, even from the first moment

be created her, a grace corresponding with thf
dignity of the mother of God.

Isaias foretold the same when he said, that m
future the mountain of the house of the Lord,
which was the blessed Virgin, should be pre
pared on the summit of all the other mountains,
and therefore all the nations must hasten to this
mountain, to receive the divine favors.* St.
Gregory explains this by saying: Yea, the
mountain on the top of mountains, because the
glory of Mary shone above that of all the saints.f
And as St. John Damascene expresses it:
The mountain which it pleased God to choose
for his habitation. J Mary was called a cypress,
but a cypress of Mount Sion: she was also called
a cedar, but a cedar of Lebanon; an olive-tree,
but a fair olive-tree; chosen, but chosen as the
sun; for, as the sun, says St. Peter Damian, with
his light so far exceeds all the splendor of the
stars, that they are seen no more when be
appears, so the great Virgin Mary surpasses,
with her sanctity, the merits of the whole celes
tial court. And as St. Bernard elegantly ex
presses it: Mary was so sublime in sanctity, that
none but Mary was a fitting mother of God.

The second argument which proves that Mary,
in the first moment of her life, was more holy
than all the saints united, is founded upon the
great office which she had from the beginning,
of mediatrix of men; for which it was requisite
that she should possess a greater treasure of
grace than the whole human race together. It
is very well known how universally this title of
mediatrix is applied by theologians and by the
very holy Fathers to Mary, since by her power
ful intercession and merits de congruo she has ob
tained salvation for all, procuring for the ruined
world the great blessing of redemption. It is
said by merit de congruo, because Jesus Christ
alone is our mediator by way of justice, and by
merit de condigno, as it is expressed by the
schools, he having offered to the eternal Father
his merits, which he has accepted for our sal
vation. Mary, on the contrary, is the mediatrix
of grace by way of simple intercession, and of
merit de congruo, she having offered to God, aa
the theologians say with St. Bonaventure, her
merits for the salvation of all men; and God,
through grace, has accepted them in union with
the merits of Jesus Christ. Hence Arnold Car-
notensis says: She effected our salvation in com
mon with Christ.f And Richard of St. Victor,

also: She desired, sought, and obtained the sal
vation of all; nay, more, the salvation of all was
effected through her.* So that every blessing
and every gift of eternal life which each of the
aints has received from God, has been obtained
for them by Mary.

And it is this which the holy Church wishes
us to understand, when she honors the divine
mother by applying to her these passages of
Ecclesiasticus: In me is all grace of the way and
of the truth: u ln me gratia omnis vise et ver-
itatis." f It is said: Of the way, because through
Mary all graces are dispensed to those who are
still on the road to heaven; Of the truth, because
through Mary is given the light of truth. In
me is all hope of life and of virtue: "In me om-
nes spes vitse et virtutis." J Of life, because
through Mary we hope to attain the life of grace
upon earth, and of glory in heaven; and of vir
tue, because through Mary virtue is obtained,
and especially the theological virtues, which are
the principal virtues of the saints. I am the
mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowl
edge, and of holy hope. Mary by her inter
cession obtains for her servants the gifts of
divine love, of holy fear, of celestial light, and
of holy confidence. And St. Bernard infers that

it is taught by the Church, that Mary is th
universal mediatrix of our salvation. "Extol
the finder of grace, the mediatrix of salvation,
the restorer of ages." Thus the Church sings of
her to me, and hath taught me to sing the same.*

Therefore, as St. Sophronius, Patriarch of
Jerusalem, asserts, the archangel Gabriel called
her full of grace: "Ave gratia plena;" because
whilst to others, as the saint above mentioned
remarks, limited grace is given, to Mary it was
given in fulness. j- And thus it was ordered,
as St. Basil attests, that in this way she might
become the worthy mediatrix between God and
men.J For if the Virgin had not been full of
divine grace, as St. Lawrence Justinian adds,
how could she be the ladder of paradise, the ad
vocate of the world, and the true mediatrix
between God and men?

The second argument is now made perfectly
clear: If Mary, even from the beginning, as al
ready destined to be the mother of the common
Redeemer, received the office of mediatrix of
all men, and consequently also of all the saints,
it was requisite that she, from the beginning,

should have a greater grace than all the saintf
had, for whom she was to intercede. To ex
plain myself more clearly, if by means of Mary
all men were to render themselves dear to God,
it was meet that Mary should be more holy and
more dear to God than all other men united.
Otherwise, how could she intercede for all
others? In order that an intercessor may ob
tain from his prince favor for all his vassals, it
is absolutely necessary that he, more than all
the other vassals, should be dear to his mon
arch. And Mary, therefore, concludes St. An-
selm, merited to be the worthy restorer of the
ruined world, because she was the most holy
and most pure of all creatures.*

Mary was, then, the mediatrix of men, some
one will say, but can she be called also the me
diatrix of angels? Many theologians are of
opinion that Jesus Christ obtained by his merits
the grace of perseverance also for the angels; so
that as Jesus Christ was their mediator de con-
dignOy Mary may also be called their mediatrix
de congruo, having hastened by her prayers the
coming of the Redeemer. At least, having mer
ited de congruo to be chosen for the mother
of the Messias, she merited for the angels the
restoration of their seats which had been lost by
the demons. Then, at least, she merited for
them this accidental glory; hence, Richard of

St. Victor says: Every creature by her is restor
ed, the ruin of the angels by her is repaired, and
human nature is reconciled.* And St. Anselm
before had said: All things by this Virgin
are reclaimed and restored to their pristine
Btate.f

So that our heavenly child, because she was
appointed mediatrix of the world, as well as pre
destined for the mother of the Redeemer, even
from the first moment of her life, received grace
greater than that of all the saints united. Hence
how lovely in the sight of heaven and earth was
the beautiful soul of that happy infant, although
still inclosed in the womb of its mother! In the
eye of God she was the creature most worthy of
love, because, already full of grace and of merit,
she could, even at that time, exult and say:
When I was a little child I pleased the Most
High: "Cum essem parvula, placui Altissimo."
And at the same time she was the creature most
full of love for God that until that time had ap
peared in this world; so that Mary, had she been
born immediately after her most pure concep
tion, would have come into the world more rich
in merits, and more holy, than all the saints
united. Now, let us consider how much more holy
she was at her birth, coming to the light after
the acquisition of those merits which she made

during the nine months that she remained in her
mother s womb. Let us now go on to consider
the second point, namely: how great was the fi
delity with which Mary at once corresponded
with the divine grace.

Second Point. It is not now an individual
opinion of some few divines, says a learned au
thor,* it is the opinion of the whole world, that
the holy infant, when she received sanctifying
grace in the womb of St. Anna, received at the
same time the perfect use of reason, with a great
divine light corresponding to the grace with
which she was enriched. Hence we may believe,
that from the first moment when her pure soul
was united to her most pure body, she was en
lightened with divine wisdom to comprehend
eternal truths, the beauty of virtue, above all,
the infinite goodness of her God, and how much
he deserves to be loved by all men, but especi
ally by her, on account of the peculiar graces
with which he had adorned her and distinguish
ed her from all creatures, preserving her from
the stain of original sin, bestowing on her a grace
BO abundant, and destining her for the mother of
the Word and the queen of the universe.

Hence Mary, from that moment grateful to
her God, began to effect all that she could,
using faithfully all that great treasure of grace
that she had received; and wholly applying her
self to please and love the divine goodness.
From that moment she loved him with all he*

* Father La Colomblere. Serau 31.

GLORIES OF MARY. 385

strength, and thus continued to love him through
all those nine months that she lived before her
birth, in which she did not cease for a moment
to unite herself to God by fervent acts of love.
She was free from original sin, and therefore
she was also exempt from every earthly attach
ment, from every irregular tendency, from every
distraction, from all strife of the senses, which
could have prevented her from advancing con*
stantly in the divine love. All her senses
united with her blessed spirit in drawing her near
to God. Hence her pure soul, freed from every
hindrance, without lingering, always rose to
God, always loved him, and always increased in
love to him. Therefore she called herself a
plane-tree planted by the waters: "Quasi pla-
tanus exaltata sum juxta aquam;"* for she, in-
deed, was that noble tree of God that always
grew beside the stream of divine grace. She also
called herself a vine: As the vine I have brought
forth a pleasant odor: "Ego quasi vitis fructifi-
cavi suavitatem odoris;"f not only because she
was so humble in the eyes of the world, but also
because, as the vine never ceases to grow: "Vitis
nullo fine crescit:" according to the Proverb, so
the most holy Virgin always increased in perfec
tion. The growth of other trees, as the orange,
mulberry, pear, &c., is determinate, but the vine
always increases, and increases in proportion to
the height of the tree by which it is supported.
Hail, oh vine, always vigorous! thus St. Gregory

* IcclL xxiy. 18. t EcclL xxiv. 83.

389 GLORIES OF MARY.

Thaumaturgus salutes her;* for she was always
united to her God, who was her only support.
Thus it was of her that the Holy Spirit spoke
when he said : Who is this that cometh up from the
desert flowing with delights, leaning on her be
loved?! Commenting on this, St. Ambrose says:
Who is that, accompanied by the divine Word,
increases like the vine supported by a lofty
tree?J

Many grave theologians teach, that the soul
which possesses a habit of virtue, whenever she
corresponds faithfully with the actual graces
which she afterwards receives from God, always
produces an act equal in intensity to the habit
she possesses; so that each time she acquires a
new and double merit, equal to the aggregate of
all the merits before acquired. This increase, as
they say, was granted to the angels in the time
of their probation; and if it were granted to the
angels, who shall say that it was not also given
to the divine mother while she lived on this
earth, but especially in the time of which I am
speaking, when she remained in the womb of her
mother, and was certainly more faithful than
the angels, in corresponding with grace?
Mary, then, during all that time was redoubling
continually that sublime grace, which from the
first moment she possessed; for, corresponding

with all her power and perfection In every act
ehe performed, at every successive moment she
redoubled her merits. Hence, if, in the first
moment, she had received a thousand degrees
of grace, in the second she had two thousand,
in the third four thousand, in the fourth eight
thousand, in the fifth sixteen thousand, in the
sixth thirty thousand; and yet we have only
reached the sixth moment. But multiply in this
way for a whole day, multiply for nine months,
and consider, what treasures of grace, of merits,
and of sanctity Mary brought into the world
when she was born.

Let us rejoice, then, with our infant, who
was born so holy, so dear to God, and so full
of grace; and let us rejoice not only for her, but
also for ourselves, since she came into the world
full of grace, not only for her own glory, but
for our good. St. Thomas says the most holy
Virgin was full of grace in three ways: 1st, She
was full of grace in soul, so that from the be
ginning her holy soul belonged entirely to God.
2d, She was full of grace in body, so that she
merited to clothe the eternal Word with her
pure flesh. 3d, She was full of grace for the
common benefit, so that all men might share it.*
Some saints, adds the angelic Doctor, have so
much grace, that not only is it enough for them
selves but also to save many others, not, how
ever, all men; only to Jesus Christ and Mary
was given so great a grace that it was sufficient

* Fnit etiam gratia plena quantum ad refusionem ad omntt
tontines*

888 GLORIES OF MARY.

to save all men. If any one bad enough for the
salvation of all, that would be the greatest; and
this was in Jesus Christ and the blessed
Virgin.* Thus St. Thomas writes. Hence
what St. John said of Jesus "And of his ful
ness we all have received"! the saints say
of Mary. St. Thomas of Villanova eays:Full of
grace, of whose fulness all receive.J There
fore St. Anselm remarks, there is no one who
does not share in the grace of Mary. And is
there any one in the world to whom Mary is not
merciful, and on whom she does not bestow
some favor?] From Jesus, however (we should
understand), we receive grace as from the au
thor of grace, from Mary as the mediatrix; from
Jesus as the Saviour, from Mary as the advo
cate: from Jesus as the fountain, from Mary as
the channel.

Therefore St. Bernard says that God has
established Mary as the channel of the mercies
which he wishes to dispense to men; and for
this reason he filled her with grace, that every
one might receive his portion of her fulness.
A full channel, that all might partake of its
fulness, but not receive the fulness itself. 1"
Hence the saint exhorts all to consider with how

much love God will have us honor this great
Virgin, since in her he has placed all the treas
ure of his blessings; that whatever we possess
of hope, grace, and salvation, we may thank
our most loving queen for it; since it all comes
to us through her hands, and by her interces
sion.* Miserable is that soul who closes for her
self this channel of grace, by neglecting to
recommend herself to Mary! When Holopher-
nes wished x to make himself master of the city
of Bethulia, he ordered the aqueducts to be de
stroyed: " And he commanded their aqueduct to
be cut off."f And this the devil does when he
wishes to make himself master of a soul, ho
makes her abandon the devotion to the most
holy Mary. When this channel is closed, she
will at once lose the light and the fear of God,
and finally eternal salvation. By the following
example it will be seen how great is the com
passion of the heart of Mary, and the ruin which
he brings upon himself who closes this
channel, and abandons devotion to this queen
of heaven.

EXAMPLE.

It is narrated by Tritemius, Camsius,
and others, that in Magdeburg, a city of Saxony,
there was a certain man named Udo, who, from
his youth, had been so destitute of talent that

he was th ridicule of all his schoolfellows.
Now one day, being more than usually disheart*
ened, he went to pray to the most holy Virgin
before her image. Mary appeared to him in a
dream, and said to him: "Udo, I will console
you, and not only will I obtain from God for
you abilities which will protect you from de
rision, but even talents which will make you ad
mired; and moreover, after the death of the
bishop, I promise that you shall be elected in
his place." Thus Mary said, and thus it came
to pass. Udo made great progress in the
sciences, and obtained the bishopric of that city.
But Udo was so ungrateful to God and to his
benefactress for these favors, that he neglect
ed all his devotions arid became the scandal of the
place. Whilst he was in bed one night with a
wicked companion, he heard a voice saying to
him: "Udo, cease this sinful pastime; you have
sinned enough."* At first he was irritated by
these words, thinking it was some one who was
reproving him; but hearing it repeated a second
arid a third night, he began to tremble a little,
lest it should be a voice from heaven. Notwith
standing all this, he continued in his wicked
ness. But after God had given him three
months for repentance, behold the punishment!
One night a devout canon, named Frederick, was
praying, in the church of St. Maurice, that God
would remove the scandal which Udo gave;
when, behold, the door of the church was burst

* Udo cessa de ludo; lusisti satis; Udo.

GLORIES OF MARY. 801

open by a strong wind. Two youths entered
with lighted torches in their hands, ,and stood
on each side of the high altar. Then two
others followed, who spread before the altar a
carpet, and placed upon it two thrones of gold.
Another youth, in military attire, followed, with
a sword in his hand, and stopping in the midst
of the church, cried: "Oh ye saints of heaven,
whose relics are preserved in this church, come
to assist at the great justice which the sovereign
Judge is about to execute." At these words
many saints appeared, and also the twelve apos
tles, as assistants in this judgment. Lastly,
Jesus Christ entered, and seated himself on one
of these thrones. Afterwards Mary appeared,
attended by many holy virgins, and seated her
self on the other throne at the side of her Son.
The Judge now ordered that the culprit should
be brought forward, and he was the miserable
Udo. St. Maurice spoke, and demanded, in the
name of the people whom he had scandalized,
justice for his infamous life. All present
raised their voices and said: "Oh Lord, he
merits death." "Let him die, then," said the
eternal Judge. But before the sentence was
executed (see how great is the mercy of Mary)
she, the kind mother, that she might not be pres
ent at that tremendous act of justice, left the
church; and then the heavenly minister, who en
tered among the first, with the sword, approach
ing Udo, with one blow severed the head from
the body, and the vision vanished. The place

392 GLORIES OF MARY.

was left dark. The canon, trembling, went fo*
a light from a lamp which was burning under
the church; and when he returned, saw the body
of Udo with the head cut off, and the pavement
all covered with blood. When daylight came,
the people thronged the church, and the canon
related the whole vision and the circumstances
of that fearful tragedy. And on the same day
the wretched Udo, who was condemned to hell,
appeared to one of his chaplains, who knew
nothing of what had taken place in the church.
The body of Udo was thrown into a marsh, and
his blood remained for a perpetual memorial on
that pavement, which was always covered with
a carpet; and from that time it became the cus
tom to uncover it when a new bishop took pos
session of the church, that at the sight of such
a punishment he might be mindful to lead a
good life, and not be ungrateful for the graces
of the Lord and of his most holy mother.

PRAYER.

Oh holy and heavenly infant Mary! thou who
art the destined mother of my Redeemer and
the great mediatrix of miserable sinners, have
pity on me. Behold at thy feet another
ungrateful creature who has recourse to thee and
implores thy mercy. It is true that, for my in
gratitude towards God and thee, I am deserving
of being abandoned by God and by thee; but I
have been told, and thus I believe, knowing how
great is thy compassion, that thou wilt not re

GLORIES OF MARY. 398

fuse to help him who, with confidence, re
commends himself to thee. Thou, oh most ex
alted of all creatures, since there is no one above
thee but God, and, in comparison with thee, the
greatest in heaven are but small; oh saint of
saints, oh Mary, abyss of grace, full of grace,
help a miserable sinner who has lost it by his
own fault. I know that thou art so dear to God
that he denies thee nothing. I know also that
thou dost rejoice to employ thy greatness in re
lieving the distressed. Ah, make known how
great is thy favor with G^d by obtaining for
me a divine light and a flame so powerful that
it may change me from a sinner into a saint,
and. detaching me from every earthly affection,
may wholly inflame me with divine love. Do
this, oh Lady, because thou canst do it; do this
for the love of that God who has made thee so
great, so powerful, and merciful. Thus I hope.
Amen.

DISCOURSE III.

ON THE PRESENTATION OP MARY.

The offering which Mary made of herself to. God toa
prompt, without delay; entire, without reserve.

THERE never has been, and there never will
be, any offering of a pure creature greater and
more perfect than that which Mary made to
God, being yet only a child of three years, when

894 GLOEIE8 OF MARY.

she presented herself in the temple to offer him,
not spices, nor calves, nor talents of gold, but
her whole self as a perfect holocaust, consecrating
herself as a perpetual victim in his honor. Well
did she understand the voice of God, which even
then called her to dedicate herself wholly to his
love, with these words: Arise, make haste, my
love, and come: "Surge, propera, arnica mea, et
veni."* And therefore her Lord would have
her from thenceforth forget her country, her
parents, and every thing, to attend to nothing
but to love arid please him: "Hearken, oh
daughter, and see and incline thy ear; and for
get thy people and thy father s house."f And
she at once obeyed promptly the divine voice.
Let us consider, then, how acceptable to God
was this offering which Mary made of herself,
as she presented herself promptly and entirely
to him; promptly without delay; entirely with
out reserve; these are the two points.

First Point. Mary offered herself to God
promptly. From the first moment when this
heavenly infant was sanctified in the womb of
her mother (which was at the first moment of
her immaculate conception), she received the
perfect use of reason, that she might from
thenceforth begin to merit, as the Doctors uni
versally agree; and one of them, Father Suarez,
says, that as the most perfect mode by which

God sanctifies a soul is its sanctification by its
own merits, as St. Thomas teaches,* so it is to
be believed that the blessed Virgin has been
thus sanctified. f And if this privilege was
granted to the angels and to Adam, as the an
gelic Doctor says,! much more should we believe
that it was granted to the divine mother, on
whom we cannot doubt that God, having
deigned to make her his mother, conferred
greater gifts than on all other creatures, as the
same Doctor teaches. From her he received
his human nature, hence before all others she
must have obtained from Christ the fulness of
grace ; for, being mother, as Father Suarez says,
she has a certain peculiar right to all the gifts
of her Son.J And as, by the hypostatic union,
Jesus must of right have the fulness of all
graces; thus by the divine maternity, it was
meet that Jesus should confer on Mary, as a
natural debt, greater graces than those bestowed
on all the other saints and angels.

Thus, from the beginning of her life, Mary
knew God, and knew him so well, that no tongue,
as the angel declared to St. Bridget, shall
suffice to tell how the intellect of the holy Vir
gin clearly saw God in the first moment she
knew him.^f And even in that first moment of

light by which she was illuminated, she offered
herself wholly to her Lord, dedicating herself
entirely to his love and glory, as the angel
continued to say to St. Bridget: "At once our
queen resolved to sacrifice her will to God, with
all her love, for the whole time of her life; and
no one can understand how completely her will
Bubmitted itself then to embrace all things
pleasing to him."*

Yet, when the immaculate infant understood
afterwards that her holy parents, Joachim
and Anna, had promised to God, even by a vow,
M various authors relate, that if he should
grant them a child, it should be consecrated to
his service in the temple; for it was an ancient
custom of the Jews to place their children in
cells which were near the temple, that there
they might be properly educated, as we learn
from Baronius, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, and Suar-
ez, as also from Josephus, the Jewish historian,
St. John Damascene, St. Gregory of Nicomedia,
St. Anselm,f and St. Ambrose.J As it is also
clearly seen in Macchabees, where, speaking of
Heliodorus, who wished to enter the temple by
force in order to take from it the treasures de
posited there, it is said: "Because the place was
like to come into contempt .... the virgins
that were shut up hastened to Onias." When
Mary knew of this vow, as I have before said,
she wished solemnly to offer and conseciate her-

elf to God, by presenting herself in the temple,
as Germanus asserts, and also St. Epiphanius,
who says, that when she was hardly three years
old she was presented in the temple,* at an age
when children have the greatest desire for the
assistance of their parents, and need it the
most. She was even the first to entreat her
parents earnestly that they would take her to
the temple, to fulfil their promise; and her holy
mother, Anna, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says,
did not delay to bring her there, and offer her to
God.f

And behold, Joachim and Anna, generously
sacrificing to God what was dearest to them on
earth, set out from Nazareth, carrying by turns,
in their arms, their beloved little daughter, who
could not \*.ilk so great a distance as was that
from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a journey, as sev
eral authors assert, of eighty miles. They thus
went on their way, accompanied by only a few
of their relations, but by hosts of angels, as St.
George of Nicomedia asserts,J who attended
and ministered to the immaculate Virgin, as
she went to dedicate herself to the Divine
Majesty. How beautiful are thy steps, oh
prince s daughter! " Quam pulchri sunt gressus
tui, filia principis!" Oh, how beautiful, how
pleasing to God, as the angels sung, are thy
steps, as thou goest to offer thyself to him, oh

great and chosen daughter of our common Lord!
God himself on that day, says Bernardino de
Bustis, celebrated a great feast with the whole
celestial court, when he beheld his spouse con-
ducted to the temple.* For he never saw ^a
creature more holy and more beloved offering
herself to him.f Go, then, said St. Germanus,
Archbishop of Constantinople, go, oh queen of
the world, oh mother of God, go joyfully to the
house of the Lord, to wait for the coming of the
Holy Spirit that will make thee mother of the
eternal Wo rid. J

When the holy company had arrived at the
temple, the eager child turned to her parents,
kneeling kissed their hands, and asked for their
benediction; and then, without turning back, she
ascended the fifteen steps of the temple, as Ariaa
Montanus relates upon the authority of Joseph-
us, the Jewish historian, and presented herself to
the priest, who, according to St. Germanus, was
Zachary; then, taking leave of the world, and
renouncing all the goods which it promises to
its followers, she offered and consecrated herself
to her Creator.

At the time of the deluge, the raven which
was sent by Noe from the ark remained to feed

upon the bodies of the dead, but the dove with*
out stopping to rest her foot, returned quickly
to the ark: She returned to him into the ark:
"Reversa est ad eum in arcam."* Many who
are sent by God into this world, unhappily stop
to feed on earthly things. Not so Mary, our
celestial dove; she knew that God should be our
only good, our only hope, our only love; sh^
knew that the world is full of dangers, and
that he who the soonest leaves it, is freest from
its snares; therefore she sought promptly to flee
from it in her tenderest years, and seclude herself
in the sacred retirement of the temple, where
she could better hear the voice of God, and bet
ter honor and love him. And thus the holy
Virgin, from the beginning of her life, rendered
herself dear and acceptable to her Lord, as the
holy Church makes her say: Rejoice with me,
all ye who love the Lord, for when I was little
I pleased the Most High."t For this reason she
was compared to the moon; for as the moon
completes her course more quickly than the
other planets, so Mary attained perfection soon
er than all the saints, by giving herself promptly
to God without delay; and entirely without re-
ierve. And now let us pass to the second point,
upon which we shall have much to say.

knew that God does not accept a divided heart,
but wishes it entirely consecrated to his love, ac
cording to the precept he has given: "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart."*
Hence, from the first moment of her existence,
she began to love God with all her strength, and
gave herself wholly to him. But her most holy
soul awaited with earnest desire the time when
she could in reality consecrate herself entirely,
and with a public solemnity, to God. Let us
consider, then, with how great a fervor the lov
ing Virgin, seeing herself actually inclosed in
that holy place, first prostrated herself to kiss
that ground as the house of the Lord, then ador
ed his infinite majesty, and thanked him for the
favor she had received of being brought so early
to inhabit his house. Then she offered herself
entirely to God; entirely, without reserving any
thing. She offered to him all her powers and
all her senses, her whole mind and her whole
heart, her whole soul and her whole body, for it
was then, as we are told, that to please God, she
made the vow of virginity. A vow, according
to Rupert the Abbot, that Mary was the first to
make; "Votum virginitatis prima emisit."f And
she offered herself without limitation of time, as
Bernardine de Bustis asserts: Mary offered and
dedicated herself to the perpetual service of
God.J Since she had then the intention of dedi-

Majesty in the temple, if it should so please
God; and of never quitting that sacred place,
Oh, with what affection must she have exclaim
ed: My beloved to me, and I to him: "Dilectus
metis mihi, et ego illi."* I for him, as Cardinal
Hugo remarks, will wholly live and will wholly
die: "Ego illi tota vivam, et tota moriar." My
Lord and my God, she said, I have come hither
only to please thee, and to give thee all the hon
or I can; here Lwill live wholly for thee and die
for thee, if it so please thee; accept the sacrifice
which this thy poor servant makes to thee, and
help me to be faithful to thee.

And here let us consider how holy was the
life that Mary led in the temple, where, like the
rising morn, "Quasi aurora consurgens," increas
ing always in perfection, as the dawn increases
in light; who can describe how, from day to day,
in her more brightly shone her virtues; char
ity, modesty, humility, silence, mortification,
meekness? This fair olive-tree, planted in the
house of God, as St. John Damascene says, un
der the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became
the habitation of all the virtues.f The same
saint says in another place: The counte
nance of the Virgin was modest, her mind hum
ble, her words kind, proceeding from a recollect
ed heart.J And he elsewhere asserts: The Vir-

gin withdrew her thoughts from all earthly
things, embracing all the virtues. Thus, then,
by the practice of perfection, she made so great
progress in a short time, as to merit being made
a temple worthy of God.*

St. Anselm, also, speaking of the life of the
holy Virgin in the temple, says: Mary was do
cile, spoke little, was always composed, never
laughed, was never distracted. She persevered
in prayer, in the reading of the Holy Scripture,
in fasting, and all virtuous works.f St. Jerome
goes more into detail, and tells us how Mary s
life was ordered: From early in the morning till
nine o clock she remained in prayer; from nine
to three she was engaged in labor; at three she
resumed her prayers, until the angel, as usuffl,
brought her food. She was the most constant in
vigils, the most exact in obedience to the divine
law, the most profound in humility, and the
most perfect in every virtue. No one ever saw
her angry; all her words were so full of sweet
ness, that when she spoke it always appeared
that God was with her.J

The divine mother herself revealed to St.
Elizabeth, a Benedictine nun, in the convent of
Sconaugia, as we read in St. Bonaventure,
that when she was left in the temple by her
parents, she resolved on having God alone for

father, and often thought what she could do to
please him.* She determined, moreover, to con
secrate to him her virginity, and to possess
nothing in the world, giving her entire will to
God.f She also told her that above all the di
vine precepts to be observed, she placed before
her eyes the precept, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God,"! and that she went in the middle of
the night to pray the Lord before the altar of
the temple, that he would grant her the grace
to observe the commandments, and to see the
mother of the Redeemer born while she lived,
praying him that he would preserve her eyes to
see her, her tongue to praise her, her hands and
feet to serve her, and her knees to adore in her
arms, his divine Son. St. Elizabeth, on hear
ing this, said to her: "But, my Lady, were you
not full of grace and virtue?" and Mary answer
ed her: "Know that I esteemed myself the most
vile, and unworthy of divine grace; therefore I
prayed thus for grace and virtues." And, final
ly, that she might persuade us of the absolute
necessity we are all under, of asking from God
the graces that we need, she added: "Do you
think that I obtained grace and virtue without
effort? Know that I received no grace from

God without great effort, constant prayer, ai>
dent desire, and many tears and penances."

But above all, we should consider the rev*
lations made to St. Bridget, of the virtues and
exercises practised by the blessed Virgin in her
childhood, in these words: "Even from an in
fant Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit, and
as she increased in age, she increased also in
grace. Even from that time she resolved to
love God with all her heart, so that he should
never be offended by her actions or her words,
and for this reason all the goods of earth were
despised by her. She gave all she could to the
poor. In her food she was so temperate that
she only took what was absolutely necessary to
support life. Discovering then from the sacred
Scriptures, that this God was to be born from a
virgin to redeem the world, her spirit was so
kindled with divine love that she desired and
thought only of God; and taking pleasure only
in God, shunned the conversation even of her
parents, that they might not hinder her from
thinking on God. And more than all did she
desire that the coming of the Messiah might be
in her day, that she might be the servant to that
happy Virgin Avho merited to be his mother.
Thus the revelation made to St. Bridget.*

Ah, for love of this exalted child the Redeem
er hastened his coming into the world, for whilst
she through her humility did not esteem herself
worthy of being the servant of the divine moth*
*L,2.et. l,3.c.a

GLORIES OP MARY. 405

er, she was herself chosen for this mother, and
by the odor of her virtues and her powerful
prayers, she drew into her virginal womb the
divine Son. Hence was Mary called the turtle
by her divine spouse: The voice of the turtle is
heard in our land: "Vox turturis audita est in
terra nostra."* Not only because she, like the
turtle, always loved solitude, living in this world
as in a desert, but also because, like the turtle
who makes the fields mournful with its sad note x
Mary was always mourning in the temple over
the miseries of the lost world, and asking from
God, the Redeemer of the world. Oh, with
how much greater affection and fervor than the
prophets did she repeat to God in the temple
their supplications and sighs, that he might send
the Redeemer; "Send forth, oh Lord, the Lamb,
the ruler of the earth. "f "Drop down dew, ye
heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the
just."J "Oh, that thou wouldst rend the hea
vens and wouldst come down."

In a word, it was an object of delight to God
to see this young Virgin always ascending to a
higher perfection, like a pillar of smoke, rich in
the odors of all virtues, as the Holy Spirit ex
actly describes her in the sacred Canticles:
"Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a
pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh,

and frankincense, and of all the powders of tbt
perfumer ?" * This holy child, says Sophronius,
was in truth the garden of delights of the Lord,
for he found there flowers of every kind, and all
the odors of the virtues.f This St. John
Chrysostom affirms, that God chose Mary for
his mother on earth, because he found not on
the earth a more perfect and more holy Virgin
than Mary, neither a place more worthy for him
to dwell in than her sacred womb;| as St. Ber
nard also says: On the earth there was no more
worthy place than the womb of the Virgin.
St. Antoninus asserts that the blessed Virgin,
in order to be elected and predestined to the
dignity of mother of God, must have possessed
a perfection so great and consummate, that it
should surpass the perfection of all other
creatures.||

As then the holy young child Mary, present
ed and offered herself in the temple promptly
and entirely, so let us, at this day, without de
lay and without reserve, present ourselves to
Mary, and entreat her to offer us to God, who
will not refuse us when he sees us offered by
the hand of her who was the living temple of
the Holy Spirit, the delight of her Lord, and

the chosen mother of the Eternal Word. And
let us place a great hope in this exalted and
most gracious Lady, who rewards with so much
love the devotions that are offered to her by her
servants, as may be seen by the following
example.

EXAMPLE.

We read in the life of Sister Domenica of Para
dise, written by Father Ignatius of Niente, a
Dominican, that in a village called Paradise, near
Florence, this little girl was born of poor par
ents. From her infancy she practised devotion
to the divine mother. She fasted every day of
the week in her honor, and on Saturday she dis
tributed to the poor the food of which she had
deprived herself; and every Saturday she went
into the garden, or into the neighboring fields,
and there gathered all the flowers she could find,
and placed them before a statue of the holy Vir
gin with the infant Jesus in her arms, which she
had in her house. But let us see now with what
favors our most grateful Lady compensated this
her servant, for the homage she paid her. As
she stood one Sunday at the window, when she
was about ten years of age, she saw in the street
a woman with a beautiful countenance, accom
panied by a little child, and they both extended
their hands as if to ask alms. She went for some
bread, and, behold, before she could open the
door, they stood beside her, and she saw woundi
on the hands, feet, and breast of the child.

408 GLORIES OF MARY.

Then she said to the woman: Who has wounded
this child?" "It was love," answered the moth-
er. Domenica, charmed by his beauty and mod*
esty, asked him if his wounds pained him; but
he only answered with a smile. As they wer
standing near the images of Jesus and of Mary,
the mother said to Domenica: "Tell me, little
girl, what makes you crown these images with
flowers?" She answered: "The love I have for
Jesus and Mary makes me do it." "And how
much do you love them?" "I love them as
much as I can." "And how much can you love
them?" "As much as they will help me."
"Continue, then," said the mother, "continue to
love them, for they will richly return your love
in paradise."

Then the little girl perceived a celestial odor
coming forth from those wounds, and she asked
the mother with what ointment she had anoint
ed them, and if that ointment could be pur
chased? "It is purchased," answered she, "with
faith and works." Domenica then offered them
the bread. The mother said: "The food of this
my Son is love; tell him that you love Jesus and
he will be satisfied." The child at mention of
this word love, began to show great signs of joy,
and turning to the little girl, he asked her how
much she loved Jesus. She answered that she
loved him so much, that day and night she was
always thinking of him, and desired nothing else
but to please him as much as she could. "Well,"
answered he, "love him; and love will teach you

GLOEIES OF MABY. 409

what you must do to satisfy him.* The odor
then increasing which came from those wounds,
Domenica exclaimed: "Oh God, this odor makes
me die of love; if the odor of a child is so sweet t
what must be the odor of paradise?" But be
hold the scene was changed; the mother appear
ed robed as a queen, and surrounded with light,
and the child resplendent as a sun of beauty.
He took those flowers and strewed them on her
head. She at once saw that these persons were
Jesus arid Mary, and prostrated herself in ador
ation before them. And thus ended the vision.
Domenica afterwards took the Dominican hab
it, and died in the year 1553, with the reputa
tion of a saint.

PRAYER.

Oh beloved of God! most amiable child Mary!
oh, that like thee, who didst present thyself in
the temple, and at once and wholly didst con
secrate thyself the glory and love of thy God, I
might offer to thee to-day the first years of my
life, and dedicate myself entirely to thy
service, oh my most holy and sweet Lady! But
it is now too late, for, unhappily, I have lost so
many years in serving the world and my capri
ces, as it were entirely forgetful of thee and of
God. Alas for the time in which I did not love
thee!* But it is better to commence late than
at all. Behold, oh Mary, to-day I present my
self to thee, and offer myself entirely to thy

* V tempori ffli, In quo non amavi t*.

410 GLORIES OF MARY.

service, for the longer or shorter tim that re*
mains for me to live on the earth; and with thea
I renounce all creatures, and dedicate myself en
tirely to the love of my Creator. I consecrata
to thee, then, oh queen, my mind, that I may al
ways think of the love that thou dost merit, my
tongue to praise thee, and my heart to love thee.
Accept, oh most holy Virgin, the offering which
the most miserable sinner presents to thee; ac
cept it, I pray thee, for the sake of that conso
lation which filled thy heart when in the temple
thou gavest thyself to God. And if late I be
gin to serve thee, it is right that I should make
good the time lost by redoubling my devotion
and my love. Aid my weakness, oh mother of
mercy, with thy powerful intercession, and
obtain for me perseverance and strength to be
faithful to thee until death; that always serv
ing thee in this life, I may come to praise thee
eternally in paradise.

DISCOURSE IV.

ON THE ANNUNCIATION OP MARY.

Mary could not humble herself more than she did in th6
incarnation of the Word. On the other hand, God could
not exalt Tier more than he has exalted her.

"WHOSOEVER shall exalt himself shall be hum.
bled, and he that shall humble himself shall be

GLORIES OF MAKY. 411

exalted."* These are the words of our Lord,
and cannot fail. Therefore, God having deter
mined to make himself man, in order to redeem
lost man, and thus manifest to the world his in
finite goodness, being about to choose on earth
his mother, sought among women the holiest
and most humble. Among them all he saw one,
the youthful virgin Mary, who, as she was the
most perfect in all virtues, so was she the most
simple; and humble as a dove in her own es
teem. "There are young maidens without num
ber; one is my dove, my perfect one." f Let
this one,then, said God, be my chosen mother.
Let us then see how humble Mary was, and how
God exalted her. Mary could not humble her
self more than she did in the incarnation of the
Word; this will be the first point. That God
could not exalt Mary more than he exalted her.
will be the second.

First Point. Our Lord in the holy Canticles,
speaking precisely of the humility of this most
humble Virgin, said : " While the King was at
his repose, my spikenard sent forth the odor
thereof. ^ St. Antoninus, commenting on these
words, says that the spikenard, inasmuch as it
is a small and lowly plant, was a type of the
humility of Mary, whose odor ascended to hea*
ven, and drew, even from the bosom of the eter-

nal Father, into her virginal womb the divine
Word. The spikenard is a small herb, and sig
nifies the blessed Virgin, who exhaled the odor
of humility; which odor ascended even to hea
ven, and in heaven as it were awakened him
who was in his repose, and brought him to rest
in her womb.* Thus the Lord, drawn by the
odor of this humble Virgin, chose her for his
mother, when he wished to become man to re
deem the world. But he, for the greater glory
and merit of this his mother, would not make
himself her Son without first obtaining her con
sent. He would not take flesh from her with
out her consent.f Therefore, when the humble
young Virgin was in her poor dwelling, sighing
and praying to God more earnestly than ever
that he would send the Redeemer, as was reveal
ed to St. Elizabeth, a Benedictine nun, behold
the Archangel Gabriel came, bearing the great
embassy. He enters and salutes her, saying:
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women. "J Hail, oh
Virgin, full of grace, for thou wast always rich
in grace, above all the other saints. The Lord
is with thee because thou art so humble. Thou
art blessed among women, for all others have
incurred the curse of original sin; but thou, be-

cause thou art to be the mother of the Blessed
One, hast been and wilt always be blessed, and
free from every stain.

But what does the humble Mary answer to
this salutation so full of praises ? She answered
nothing, but she was disturbed thinking on such
a salutation: "And when she had heard, she
was troubled at his saying, and thought with
herself what manner of salutation this should
be."* And why was she disturbed? through
fear of illusion, or through modesty at the sight
of a man, as some suppose, remembering that
the angel appeared to her in human form ? No,
the text is plain; she was troubled at his saying,
"turbata est in serraone ejus," as Eusebius
Emissenus remarks: Not by his appearance, but
by his speech: Non in vultu, sed in sermone
ejus." Such a disturbance was then wholly
owing to her humility at hearing those praises,
so far beyond her humble esteem of herself.
Hence the more she is exalted by the angel, the
more she humbles herself, and the more she con
siders her nothingness. St. Bernardine remarks:
If the angel had said that she was the greatest
sinner in the world, Mary would not have been
thus surprised; but in hearing those exalted
praises she was greatly disturbed.f She was
troubled because, being so full of humility, she

abhorred every praise, and desired that none but
her Creator, the giver of every good, should be
praised and blessed. Mary said exactly this to
St. Bridget, speaking of the time when she be
came mother of God. "I disliked my own praise,
and only wished to hear that of the giver and
Creator." *

But I would remark, that the blessed Virgin
had already well learned from the Holy Script
ures that the time foretold by the prophets for
the coming of the Messiah had arrived; that the
weeks of Daniel were now completed; that al
ready, according to the. prophecy of Jacob, the
sceptre of Judah had passed into the hands of
Herod, a strange king, and she well knew that a
virgin was to be the mother of the Messiah;
and ehe hears those praises offered by the angel
to herself, which seemed to belong only to the
mother of God; did it then come into her mind
that perhaps she herself might be that chosen
mother of God ? No, her profound humility
did not permit this thought. These praises had
no other effect than to cause her great fear; so
that, as St. Peter Chrysologus remarks: As
Christ wished to be consoled by an angel, so
must the Virgin be encouraged by an angel.f
As the Saviour willed to be comforted by an an
gel, so it was necessary that St. Gabriel, seeing
Mary so full of fear at that salutation, should

encourage her, saying: "Fear not, Mary, for
thou hast found grace with God."* Do not
fear, oh Mary, nor be surprised by the great
titles by which I have saluted thee, for if thou
art so little and humble in thine own eyes, God,
who exalts the humble, has made thee worthy to
find the grace lost by man; and therefore has he
preserved thee from the common stain of all the
children of Adam; therefore, even from the
moment of thy conception he has adorned thee
with a greater grace than that of all the saints;
and therefore, finally, he now exalts thee to be
his mother: "Behold, thou shalt conceive and
ghalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his
name Jesus." f

Now why this delay? The angel, oh Lady,
awaits thy answer, as St. Bernard says: We
rather await it who are condemned to death.J
Behold, oh our mother, continues St. Bernard,
to thee is now offered the price of our salvation,
which will be the divine Word in thee made
man; if thou wilt accept him for a son, we
shall be immediately delivered from death; be
hold the price of our salvation is offered to thee;
immediately we are liberated if thou dost con
cent^ Thy Lord himself, as he is greatly en
amored of thy beauty, so much the more desires

thy consent, on which he has made the salvation
of the world depend.* Answer quickly, oh
Lady, adds St. Augustine, delay no longer the
salvation of the world, which now depends on
thy consent. f

But, behold, Mary already answers ; she an-
Bwers the angel, and says : Behold the hand
maid of the Lord, be it done unto me according
to thy word."J Oh, what more beautiful, more
humble, and more prudent answer could all the
wisdom of men and of angels united have in
vented, if they had thought of it for millions
of years ! Oh powerful answer, which gave
joy in heaven, and poured upon the earth a vast
flood of graces and blessings ! Answer, that
hardly came forth from the humble heart of
Mary before it drew from the bosom of the
eternal Father, the only begotten Son, to be
come man in her most pure womb! yes, for
hardly had she uttered these words: Behold the
handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me accord
ing to thy word; when immediately the Word
was made flesh : "Verbuin caro f actum est;" the
Son of God became also the Son of Mary. Oh
powerful Fiat! exclaims St. Thomas of Villa-
nova; oh efficacious Fiat! oh Fiat to be reverenc-

ed above every fiat!* for by another fiat God
created the light, the heaven, and the earth ;
but by this fiat of Mary, says the saint, God be
came man like us.

But let us not wander from our point, let us
consider the great humility of the Virgin in this
answer. She was indeed well enlightened to un
derstand how great was the dignity of the moth
er of God. She already had been assured by
the angel that she was this happy mother chos
en by the Lord. But with all this she is not at
all raised in her own esteem, stops not at all to
enjoy her exaltation, but considering on one
side her own nothingness, and on the other the
infinite majesty of her God, who chose her for
his mother, she knows how unworthy she is of
such an honor, but would by no means oppose
herself to his will. Hence, when her consent
was asked, what does she do? what does she say?
Wholly annihilated as to self; all inflamed, on
the other hand, with the desire of uniting her-
eelf thus more closely to God, by entirely aban
doning herself to the divine will: Behold, she
answers, behold the handmaid of the Lord:
4 *Ecce ancilla Domini." Behold the slave of the
Lord: obliged to do whatever her Lord com
mands. And she intended to say: If the Lord
chooses me for his mother, who have nothing of
my own; if all that I have is his gift, who could
think that he selects me for any merit of my

own? Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
What merit can a slave have, to be made the
mother of her Lord? Behold the handmaid of
the Lord. Let the goodness of God alone be
praised, and not the slave ; since it is wholly his
goodness which has led him to place his eye on
a creature so lowly as I, and make her so
great.

Oh humility, exclaims here Guerric the Abbot;
small in its own eyes, great in the eyes of God!
Insufficient to itself, sufficient to him whom
the whole world cannot contain!* But still
more beautiful on this occasion is the excla
mation of St. Bernard, which he makes in the
fourth sermon on the Assumption of Mary, in
which, admiring the humility of Mary, he says:
Oh Lady, how have you been able to unite in
your heart such an humble esteem of yourself
with so much purity, so much innocence, and
with such fulness of gracef as thou dost possess!
And whence, oh blessed Virgin, did this humil
ity, this so great humility, take such deep root
in thee, when thou wast so honored and exalted
by God?J Lucifer, seeing himself endowed
with great beauty, aspired to exalt his throne
above the stars, and make himself like to God.
Now \vhat would not that proud spirit have

said and attempted if lie had seen himself adorn
ed with the privileges of Mary? Not so the
humble Mary; the more she saw herself exalted,
the more she humbled herself. Ah Lady, for
this beautiful humility, concludes St. Bernard,
thou hast indeed merited to be regarded by God
with peculiar love, to charm thy King with thy
beauty; to draw him with the sweet odor of thy
humility, from his repose in the bosom of God,
into thy most pure womb.* Hence St. Bernar-
dine de Bustis says, that Mary merited more by
that answer: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord,"
than all creatures could merit by their works. f

Thus, says St. Bernard, this innocent Virgin,
although by her virginity she rendered herself
dear to God, yet by humility afterwards render
ed herself worthy, as much as a creature can ren
der itself worthy, to be made the mother of her
Creator. Although she pleased by her virgin
ity, by her humility she conceived: "Etsi placuit
ex virginitate, tamen ex humilitate concepit."J
And St. Jerome confirms this by saying, that
God chose her for his own mother more for her
humility, than for all her other sublime virtues.
Mary herself expressed this to St. Bridget, by

saying to her: How much did I merit such a grace
to be made the mother of my Lord, if not becausa
I knew my nothingness, and humiliated myself?*
And this she declared before in her Canticle, so
fall of the deepest humility, when she said: "Be
cause he hath regarded the humility of his hand
maid . . . He that is mighty hath done great
things to me."f Upon which words St. Law
rence Justinian remarks, that the blessed Virgin
does not say, he regarded my virginity, my inno
cence, but only my humility.J And by this hu
mility, as St. Francis de Sales remarks, Mary did
not intend to praise the virtue of her humility,
but wished to proclaim that God had regarded
her nothingness, humility, that is, nothingness:
"Humilitatem, id est niliilitatem," and through
his pure goodness had willed thus to exalt her.

In a word, St. Augustine says that the hu
mility of Mary was like a ladder, by which our
Lord deigned to descend upon earth to become
man in her womb. And St. Antoninus confirms
this by saying that the humility of the Virgin
was her most perfect and the next preparation
to become the mother of God.J And by this ia

explained what Isaias predicted: "And there shall
come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a
flower shall rise up out of his root.* The blessed
Albertus Magnus remarks, that the divine flow
er, namely, the only-begotten of God, according
to Isaias, would come forth, not from the top or
the trunk of the tree of Jesse, but from its root,
which precisely denotes the humility of the
mother, f And this is more clearly explained by
the Abbot of Celles. Observe, says he, that not
from the top, but from the root this flower is to
spring up. | And therefore our Lord said to his
beloved daughter; "Turn away thy eyes from
me, for they have made me flee away." And
from whence flee, unless from the bosom of the
Father to the womb of Mary?] as St. Augustine
says. Upon which the learned interpreter Fernan
dez observes, that the most humble eyes of Mary,
with which she always contemplated the divine
greatness, never losing sight of her nothingness,
did such violence to God herself that they drew
him into her bosom.^f And by this we are to
understand, says Francone the Abbot, why the

Holy Spirit so much praised the beauty of this
his spouse for her eyes, which were like those of
a dove: "How beautiful art thou, my love! how,
beautiful art thou! thy eyes are like doves
eyes;"* because Mary, looking on God with the
eyes of a simple, humble dove, he was so mucli
enamored of her beauty, that with the bands of
love she made him a prisoner in her virginal
womb; these are the words of the abbot: In what
place on the earth could so be. iutiful a virgin be
found, who could allure the King of heaven by
her eyes, and by a holy violence lead him cap
tive, bound in the chains of charity?f We will
conclude this point by remarking that Mary, in
the incarnation of the Word, as we have seen
from the beginning, could not have humiliated
herself more than she did. Let us now see how
God could exalt her no higher than he did by
making her his mother.

Point Second. In order to comprehend, the
greatness to which Mary was elevated, it would
be necessary to comprehend the sublime majesty
and grandeur of God. It is sufficient, then, only
to say , that God made this Virgin his mother,
to have it understood that God could not exalt
her more than he did exalt her. Rightly did
St. Arnold Carnotensis affirm, that God, by

making himself the Son of the Virgin, establish
ed her in superior rank to all the saints and
angels: " Maria constituta est , -super oranem
Creaturam."* So that, next to God, she is in
comparably higher than the celestial spirits, as
St. Ephrem asserts: "Nullacomparatione caeteris
superis est gloriosior."j- St. Andrew of Crete
confirms this, saying: God excepted, she is the
higest of all: "Excepto Deo, omnibus est al-
tior."J And St. Anselm also says: Oh Lady, there
is none equal to thee, because every other, is
above or beneath thee; God alone is superior to
thee, and all others are inferior. So great, in a
word, says St. Bernardine, is the exaltation of
this Virgin, that God alone is able to compre
hend it. ||

This removes the surprise expressed by some
persons, remarks St. Thomas of Villanova, that
the holy Evangelists, who have so fully recorded
the praises of a Baptist and a Magdalene, have
been so brief in their descriptions of the priv
ileges of Mary ; for, says the saint, it was enough
to say of her, that from her Jesus was born.T
What more would you wish the Evangelists to
Bay, continues the saint, of the grandeur of this
Virgin ? let it be enough for you, that they at-

lest her to be the mother of God. Having re
corded in these few words the greatest, and, in
deed, the whole of her merits, it was not necessary
for them to describe each separately.* And
why not ? because, as St. Anselm answers: To
say of Mary this alone, that she was the moth
er of a God, transcends every glory that can be
attributed to her, in thought or word, after
God.f Peter of Celles adds, remarking on this
same thought: By whatever name you may
wish to call her, whether queen of heaven, ruler
of the angels, or any other title of honor, you
will never succeed in honoring her so much as
by calling her only the mother of God.J

The reason of this is evident, for as the an
gelic Doctor teaches: The nearer a thing ap
proaches its author, the greater the perfection it
receives from him; therefore, Mary being the
creature nearest to God, she has partaken more
than all others of his grace, perfection, and
greatness. To this Father Suarez traces the

cause why the dignity of mother of God is of
an order superior to any other created dignity;
because it appertains, in a certain manner, to the
order of union with a divine person, with which
union it is necessarily connected.* Hence St.
Denis the Carthusian asserts, that after the hy-
postatic union, there is none more intimate than
the union of the mother of God with her Son.f
This, as St. Thomas teaches, is the highest union
that a pure creature can have with God.f
And the blessed Albertus Magnus affirms, that
to be mother of God is a dignity next to that
of being God; therefore he says, that Mary
could not be more united to God than she was,
without becoming God.|

St. Bernardine affirms, that in order to become
mother of God, it was requisite that the holy
Virgin should be exalted to a certain equality
with the divine Persons, by a certain infinity of
graces. T And as children are esteemed moral
ly one with their parents, so that their posses-

sions and honors are in common, therefore St.
Peter Damian says, that if God dwells in creat
ures in different modes, he dwelt in Mary in a
singular mode of fitness, making himself one
with her.* And he exclaims in these celebrat
ed words: Here let every creature be silent and
tremble, and scarcely dare to behold the immen
sity of so great a dignity. God dwells in a
virgin with whom he has the identity of one
nature.f

St. Thomas asserts, that Mary, being made
mother of God, by reason of this close union
with an infinite good, received a certain infinite
dignity, which Father Suarez calls infinite of its
kind.J The dignity of mother of God is the
highest dignity which can be conferred on a
pure creature. The angelic Doctor teaches, that
the humanity of Jesus Christ, though it might
have received greater habitual grace from God,
yet, as to the union with a divine Person, could
not receive greater perfection; so, on the other
hand, the blessed Virgin could receive no great
er dignity than to be the mother of God. For
aa habitual grace (this is his reasoning) is a creat
ed gift, we must acknowledge that its essence ia
finite. The capacity of every creature is lim-

itcd in measure, which however prevents not
the divine power from being able to form another
creature of greater capacity.* Though the di
vine power may create something greater
and better than the habitual grace of Christ,
yet it could not destine it to any thing greater
than was the personal union of the only begot*
ten Son with the Father.f The blessed Virgin,
because she is the mother of God, has a certain
infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is
God; and in this respect nothing greater can be
created. J St. Thomas of Villanova says the
same thing: Certainly there is something infinite
in being the mother of the Infinite One. And
St. Bernardino says, that the state to which God
exalted Mary as his mother was the high-
est, so that he could exalt her no higher. |) And
this is confirmed by Albertus Magnus. The
Lord conferred on the blessed Virgin the high-

est gift which any pure creature was capable of
receiving, namely, the maternity of God.*

Therefore St. Bonaventure wrote that cele
brated sentence, that God could make a greater
world, a greater heaven, but could not exalt a
creature to greater excellence than by making
her his mother.f But better than all others has
the divine mother herself described the height to
which God has elevated her when she said: He
that is mighty hath done great things to me:
"Fecit mihi magna qui potens est."J And why
has the holy Virgin never made known what
were the great favors conferred upon her by
God? St. Thomas of Villanova answers, that
Mary did not explain them, because they were
eo great that they could not be explained.

St. Bernard therefore, with reason, says that
God has created all the world for this Virgin,
who was to be his mother: "Propter hanc totus
mundus factus est."| And St. Bonaventure
says that the preservation of the world is at the
disposal of Mary.^f The saint in this place ad-

heres to the words of Proverbs, applied by the
Church to Mary: I was with him forming all
things: "Cum eo erarn cuncta componens. " *
St. Bernardine adds, that God, for love of Mary,
did not destroy man after the sin of Adam.} 1
Hence the Church, with reason, sings of Mary:
She has chosen the best part: "Optimam partem
elegit."J For this virgin mother not only
chose the best things, but she chose the best
part of the best things; the Lord bestowing
upon her, in the highest degree, as the blessed
Albertus Magnus attests, all the graces, and the
general and particular gifts conferred on all
other creatures, wholly in consequence of the
dignity granted her of becoming mother of
God. Thus Mary was an infant, but of this
state she had only the innocence, but not the
defect of incapacity, for from the first moment
of life she always had the perfect use of reason.
She was a virgin, but without the reproach of
sterility. She was a mother, but with the priv
ilege of virginity. She was beautiful, even most
beautiful, as Richard of St. Victor asserts, and
also St. George of Nicomedia, and St. Dionysius
the Areopagite, who, as many believe, once had
the happiness of enjoying the sight of her beauty,

and said that if faith had not taught him that
she was a creature, he should have adored her
as God. And the Lord himself revealed to St.
Bridget, that the beauty of his mother surpass
ed the beauty of all men and angels, allowing
the saint to hear him say to Mary: "Thy beauty
exceeds that of all the angels, and of all creat
ures."* She was most beautiful, I repeat, but
without injury to those who looked upon her,
for her beauty put to flight impure emotions, and
Suggested even pure thoughts, as St. Ambrose
attests: So great grace had she, that she not
only pn served her own virginity, but also conferr
ed a remarkable gift of purity on those who
beheld her.f And St. Thomas confirms this:
The grace of sanctification not only repressed in
the Virgin illicit emotions, but also had efficacy
for others; so that although she was beautiful in
person, she never excited impure desires.J
Therefore she was called myrrh, which prevents
corruption: I yielded a sweet odor like the best
myrrh: "Quasi mirrha electa dedi suavitatem
odoris;" as the holy Church applies it. She was
occupied in active life, but labor did not inter-

rupt her union with God. In the contemplative
life she was reco21ected in God, but without
neglect of the temporal life, and of the char-
ity due to the neighbor. Death came upon her,
but without its suffering, and without the cor
ruption of the body.

To conclude then: this divine mother is infin
itely inferior to God, but immensely superior to
all creatures; and if it is impossible to find a Son
more noble than Jesus, it is also impossible to
find a mother more noble than Mary. This
should cause the servants of such a queen not
only to rejoice in her greatness, but also to in
crease their confidence in her most powerful pro
tection; for, being mother of God, says Father
Suarez, she has a certain right to his gifts, to ob
tain them for those for whom she prays.* St.
Germanus, on the other hand, says that God
cannot but hear the prayers of this mother, for
he cannot but recognize her for his true and im
maculate mother. Thus says the saint address
ing the Virgin: But thou, who dost prevail with
God by a maternal authority, even for those who
grievously sin, thou dost obtain the great grace
of reconciliation; for thou canst not but be
graciously heard, as God in all things conforms
to thy wishes as to those of a true and pure
mother.f Therefore, oh mother of God, and our

mother, in thee is not wanting the power to help
us. The will, too, is not wanting. Nee facul-
tas, nee voluntas illi deesse potest.* For thou
knowest, I will say with thy servant the Abbot
of Celles, that God has not created thee for him
self alone, but has given thee to the angels for
their restorer, to men for their deliverer, and to
the demons for their conqueror, for by thy means
we recover divine grace, and by thee the enemy
is conquered and crushed. f

And if we wish to please the divine mother,
let us often salute her by saying the "Hail Mary."
One day Mary appeared to St. Matilda, and told
her that no one could honor her better than by
this salutation; and we shall certainly obtain
through it, peculiar graces from this mother of
mercy, as will be seen by the following ex
ample.

EXAMPLE.

A well-known incident is related by Father Paul
Segneri in his "Christian Instructed. ]; A Ro
man youth, of evil habits and laden with sins,
went to confession to Father Kiccolas ZuccLi.
The confessor received him kindly, compassiona
ted his misery, and told him that devotion to the
blessed Lady would free him from bis accursed

vices. He therefore imposed it upon him as a
penance, that until the time of his next confession,
every morning and evening, on rising and going to
bed, he should recite a "Hail Mary" to the Virgin;
making an offering to her of his eyes, hands, and
his whole body, praying her to keep him as her
own; and that he should kiss the ground three
times. The young man practised this penance,
and at first with very little improvement; but
the father continued to exhort him never to give
it up, encouraging him to trust in the patronage
of Mary. In the mean time, the penitent left
home with some other companions, and travelled
over the world. Having returned to Home, he
went again to seek his confessor, who to his
great joy and surprise, found him entirely chang
ed, and free from his former impurities. "My
son," he said, "how have you obtained from God
so happy a change?" "Father," answered the
youth, "the blessed Virgin, for that little devo
tion which you taught me, has obtained for me
this grace." But the wonder did not cease here.
The same confessor related this fact from the
pulpit. An officer, who, for several years, had
kept up an illicit intercourse with a certain
woman, heard it, and proposed also himself to
practise the same devotion, in order to free him
self from that horrible tie which held him a
slave of the devil (which intention is necessary
for all such sinners, that the Virgin may aid
them) : and he also quitted his bad practices and
changed his life.

434 GLORIES OF MARY.

But what followed? At the end of six
months, foolishly and too confidently trusting in
his strength, he wished, one day, to go and find
that woman, to see if she had also changed her
way of life. But on approaching the door of
her house, where he was in manifest danger of
falling again into sin, he felt himself thrust back
by an invisible force, and soon found himself
distant from the house the whole length of the
street, and before his own door; he was then en
lightened to see clearly that Mary had thus
rescued him from his destruction. Thus we per
ceive how solicitous is our good mother, not only
to save us from sin, if we for that end commend
ourselves to her, but also to protect us from the
danger of falling into it again.

PRAYER.

Oh immaculate and holy Virgin loh creature
the most humble and the greatest before God !
thou wast so small in thy own eyes, but so
great in the eyes of thy Lord, that he exalted
thee even to choose thee for his mother, and
therefore to make thee queen of heaven and of
earth. I then thank that God who hath so much
exalted thee, and rejoice with thee in seeing thee
BO closely united to God, that more is not per
mitted to a pure creature. I am ashamed to appear
before thee who art so humble, with so many
graces; I, a miserable sinner, and so proud with
so many Bins. But wretched as I am, I,

GLORIES OF MARY. 435

wish to salute thee: Hail Mary, full of grace:
"Ave Maria, gratia plena." Tbou art already
full of grace; obtain a share of it also for me.
The Lord is with thee: "Dominus tecum."
The Lord who hath ever been with thee even
from the first moment of thy creation, is now
more intimately with thee, by making himself
thy Son. Blessed art thou among women:
"Benedicta tu in naulieribus." Oh woman,
blessed among all women, obtain for us also the
divine benediction. Oh blessed plant which
hath given to the world a fruit so noble and so
holy: "Et benedictus fructus ventris tui."
Holy Mary, mother of God: "Sancta Maria,
mater Dei." Oh Mary, I confess that thou art
the true mother of God, and for this truth I
would give my life a thousand times. Pray for
us sinners; "Ora pro nobis peccatoribus." But
if thou art the mother of God, thou art also the
mother of our salvation, and of us poor sinners;
since it is to save sinners that God made him
self man; and he has made thee his mother that
thy prayers may have the power to save every
sinner. Pray for us, oh Mary. Now and in the
hour of our death: "Nunc et in hora mortis
nostrae." Pray always; pray now, while we are
in life, in the midst of so many temptatiens and
so great danger of losing God; but still more,
pray in the hour of our death, when we are on
the point of leaving this world and being pre
sented at the divine tribunal; that being saved
by the merits of Jesus Christ, and by thy in

436 GLORIES OF MARY.

tercession, we may one day come, without the
danger of losing thee any more, to salute thee
and praise thee, with thy Son, in heaven, for
all eternity. Amen.

DISCOURSE V.

ON THE VISITATION OF MARY.

i/tary is the tfeasurer of all the divine graces. Therefore to
who desires graces should have recourse to Mary; and he
wTio has recourse to Mary, should be secure of obtaining
the graces he wishes.

HAPPY is that house esteemed which is visited
by some royal personage, both for the honor it
receives from him, and the advantages it hopes
for; but more happy should that soul be called
which is visited by the queen of the world, most
holy Mary, who cannot but fill with mercies
and graces those blessed souls whom she deigns
to visit with her favors. The house of Obededom
was blessed when it was visited by the ark of the
Lord: The Lord blessed his house: "Benedixit
Dominus domui ejus."* But with how much
greater blessings are those persons enriched who
receive some loving visit from this living ark of
God, as was the divine mother! Happy that
house which the mother of God visits,f wrote
Engelgrave. This was experienced by the

* 1 Par. f Felix ilia domus quam mater Dei vlsitafc

GLORIES OF MARY. 437

house of the Baptist, wherein scarcely had Mary
entered, when she filled all that family with
celestial graces and benedictions; and for this
reason, the present feast of the Visitation is
commonly called the feast of our Lady of
graces. We shall consider to-day, in the pres
ent discourse, how the divine mother is the
treasurer of all graces. We shall divide the
discourse into two points. In the first, we shall
prove that he who desires graces must have re
course to Mary. In the second, that he who
has recourse to Mary, should be certain of ob
taining the graces that he desires.

Point First. After the holy Virgin had
heard from the archangel St. Gabriel, that her
cousin Elizabeth had been six months pregnant,
she was interiorly enlightened by the Holy
Spirit to know that the Word which had taken
human flesh and had already become her Son,
wished to commence manifesting to the world
the riches of his mercy, by the first graces that
he desired to impart to all that family. There
fore, without interposing any delay, as St. Luke
relates: Rising up, Mary went into the moun
tainous country in haste: "Exurgens abiit in mon-
tana cum festinatione."* Rising then from the
quiet of her contemplation, to which she was al
ways devoted, and leaving her dear solitude, she
immediately set out for the house of Elizabeth.
And because holy charity suffers all things:
"Charitas omnia suffert;" and can bear no delay,
as St. Ambrose remarks, when treating of this

438 GLORIES OF MARY.

gospel : The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no
slow movements : "Nescit tarda molimina Spir-
itus Sancti gratia :" therefore not heeding the fa
tigue of the journey, the tender and delicate maid
en quickly set forth on her way. Having arriv
ed at that house, she saluted her cousin : "She
entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted
Elizabeth."* And as St. Ambrose remarks, Marj
was the first to salute Elizabeth : "Prior saluta-
vit." But the visit of the blessed Virgin was
not like the visits of the worldly, which, for the
most part, consist in ceremonies and false display ;
the visit of Mary brought into that house an
abundance of graces. For at her first entrance,
and at that first salutation, Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Spirit, and John was delivered
from guilt and sanctified, and therefore gave
that sign of joy, exulting in the womb of his
mother ; for he wished in this way to make known
the grace received by means of the blessed Vir
gin ; as Elizabeth herself declared : "As soon as
the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy." So, as
Bernardine de Bustis observes, in virtue of the
salutation of Mary, John received the grace of the
Divine Spirit, who sanctified him : When the
"blessed Virgin saluted Elizabeth, the voice of the
salutation entering through her ears, descended
to the child, by virtue of which salutation he re
ceived the Holy Spirit. J

Now if these first-fruits of the redemption all
passed through Mary, and she was the channel
by means of which grace was communicated
to the Baptist, the Holy Spirit to Elizabeth, the
gift of prophecy to Zachary, and so many other
blessings to that house, which were the first
graces that we know to have been given upon
earth by the Word, after he had become incar
nate; we have great reason to believe that God,
even from that time, had constituted Mary a
universal channel, as St. Bernard calls her,
through which thenceforth should be dispensed
to us all the other graces which the Lord wishes
to bestow on us, as it was said in p. 1 c. 5, of
this work.

Rightly then is this divine mother called the
treasure, the treasurer, and the dispensatrix of
divine graces. Thus she is called by the venera
ble Abbot of Celles: The treasure of the Lord
and the.treasurer of graces: "Thesaurus Domini,
et thesauraria gratiarum."* By St. Peter
Damian, also; The treasure of divine graces:
Thesaurus divinarum gratiarum." By blessed
Albertus Magnus: The treasurer of Jesus Christ:
"Thesauraria Jesu Christi." By St. Bernar-
dine: The dispensatrix of graces: "Dispensatrir
gratiarum." By a Greek Doctor, quoted
by Petavius:f The store-house of all good
things: "Promptuarium omnium bonarum."

Thus, also, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus says:
Mary is called so full of grace, because
in her the treasure of grace was hidden,* And
Richard of St. Laurence says that God has plac
ed in Mary, as in a treasury of mercy, the gifts
of all the graces, and from this treasure he en
riches his servants.f

St. Bonaventure, speaking of the field of the
Gospel where the treasure is hidden which should
be bought at any great price, as Jesus Christ
hath said: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto
a treasure hidden in a field, which, when a man
hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth
and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the
field ;"J remarks that this field is our Queen
Mary, in whom is the treasure of God, that is,
Jesus Christ, and with Jesus Christ the source
and fountain of all graces. St. Bernard also
affirms that the Lord has placed in the hands of
Mary all the graces that he wishes to dispense
to us, that we may know that whatever of good
we receive, we receive it all from her hands.)
And of this Mary herself assures us. when she

says: In me is all grace of tlie way and of the
truth: "In me gratia omnis vise et veritatis."*
In me are all the graces of true blessings that
you men can desire in your life. Yes, our moth
er and our hope, well do we know, to use the
words of St. Peter Damian, that all the treasures
of the divine mercies are in thy hands.f And
before Damian, St.Ikleplionsus asserted it with
more force, for addressing the Virgin he said to
her: Oh Lady, all the graces which God has
determined to bestow upon men, he has deter
mined to dispense by thy hands; and therefore
has he committed to thee all the treasure of
graces. J Hence, oh Mary, concluded St. Ger-
manus, no grace is dispensed to any one except
by thy hands; no one is except by thee; no one
receives the gift of God except through thee.
The blessed Albertus Magnus makes a beautiful
reflection upon the words of the angel to the
most holy Virgin; "Fear not, Mary, for thou
hast found grace with God,"|| saying: Oh, Mary,
thou hast not stolen grace as Lucifer wishes to
steal it; thou hast not lost it as Adam lost it;

thou hast not bought it as Simon the Magician
wished to buy it; but thou hast found it because
thou hast desired and sought it. Thou hast
found the uncreated grace, that is, God himself,
become thy Son; and at the same time thou
hast found and obtained all created good.* St.
Peter Chrysologus confirms this thought, by
saying that the great mother found this grace
by restoring salvation to all men.f And else
where he says, that Mary found grace in its ful>
ness, sufficient to save all men.J In the like
manner as God made the sun, says Richard of
St. Laurence, that by it the earth may be illumin
ated, so hath he created Mary, that by her
means all divine mercies may be dispensed to
the world. And St. Bernardine adds that the
Virgin, as soon as she was made mother of the
Redeemer, acquired, as it were, a jurisdiction
over all graces: when the Virgin Mary conceived
the Word of God in her womb, she obtained, as
I should say, a certain jurisdiction over all the
temporal manifestations of the Holy Spirit; so
that no creature obtained any grace from God,

Let us conclude this point in the words of
Richard of St. Laurence, who says, that if we
wish to obtain any grace, we must have recourse
to Mary, who cannot but obtain for her ser
vants whatever she demands; since she has found,
and always will find, divine grace. f And this
he took from St. Bernard, who said: Let us seek
grace, and let us seek it through Mary, for what
she seeks she finds, and cannot be frustrated. J
If, then, we desire graces, we must go to this
treasurer and dispensatrix of graces; for this is
the sovereign will of the Giver of every good,
as St. Bernard himself assures us, that all graces
are dispensed by the hands of Mary. All, all,
Totum, totum; he who says all, excludes noth
ing. But, because confidence is necessary in
order to obtain grace, we now will pass on to
consider how certain we should be of obtaining
graces, if we have recourse to Man 7 .

ever have placed in the hands of this his moth
er all the riches of the mercies which he wishes
to use for our benefit, if not that she may en
rich with them all her servants who love and
honor her, and with confidence recur to her?
"With me are riches .... that I may enrich
them that love me: "Mecum sunt divitise ....
nt ditem diligentes me."* Thus the Virgin her
self speaks in this passage, which the holy
Church applies to her on so many of her festi
vals. Therefore, for no other use, but for our
benefit, says Adam the Abbot, are the riches of
eternal life preserved by Mary, in whose bosom,
the Saviour has deposited the treasure of the
wretched, that, supplied from this treasure, the
poor may become rich.f And St. Bernard adds,
as I learn from another author, that for this pur
pose Mary has been given to the world, for a chan
nel of mercy, that by her means graces may con
tinually descend from heaven upon men.J

From this the holy Father goes on to ask,
why St. Gabriel, having found the divine moth
er already full of grace, according to his salu
tation: Hail, full of grace: "Ave gratia plena:"
afterwards says that the Holy Spirit was to
come to her, to fill her still more with grace; if
she was already full of this grace, what more

could the coming of the Holy Spirit effect?
Mary was already full of grace, thus answers St.
Bernard, but the Holy Spirit came upon her for
our good, that from her superabundance we
poor sinners might be provided.* For thii
reason Mary was called the moon, of which it is
said: the moon is full, for herself and others;
"Luna plena sibi, et aliis."

"He that shall find me, shall find life, and
shall have salvation from the Lord."f Blessed
is he who having recourse to me finds me, says
our mother. He will find life, and will find it
easily; for, as it is easy to find and draw water
(as much as one wishes) from a great fountain,
so it is easy to find graces and eternal salvation
by going to Mary. A holy soul hath said, we
have only to ask graces of our Lady and we
shall have them. And St. Bernard says, that
before Mary was born, the world was without
this abundance of graces, that now are overflow
ing the earth, because this desirable channel
(Mary) was wanting.^ But now that we actual
ly have this mother of mercy, what graces can
we not obtain, if we cast ourselves at her feet?
I am the city of refuge, thus St. John of Damas
cus makes her to say, for all those who have re-

ourse to me: come, then, my children, and yon
will obtain from me graces, in greater abundance
than you can imagine.*

It is true that many experience what the ven
erable Sister Maria Villain saw in a heavenly
vision. This servant of God once saw the moth
er of God in the likeness of a great fountain, to
which many went to draw the waters of graces;
but what then happened ? Those who carried
vessels which were whole, preserved after
wards the graces received; but those who
caryied broken vessels, that is, souls la
den with sins, received the graces, but quickly
lost them again. As for the rest, it is certain
that by means of Mary, men, even the most un
grateful and wretched sinners, daily obtain in
numerable graces. St. Augustine says, address
ing the Virgin: Through thee the wretched ob
tain mercy, the ungrateful grace, sinners pardoD,
the weak support, the earthly heavenly things,
mortals life, and travellers their country.f

Let our confidence, then, ever revive, oh
devoted servants of Mary, as often as we have
recourse to her for graces. And to revive this
confidence, let us ever remember the two great
privileges which this good mother possesses,
namely: the desire she has to do us good, and

the power she has with her Son to obtain what
ever she asks. That we may know the desire
Mary has to aid all, it would be sufficient only
to consider the mystery of the present festival,
namely, the visit of Mary to Elizabeth. The
journey from Nazareth, where the most holy
Virgin lived, to the city of Hebron (called by
St. Luke a city of Judah), where, according to
Baronius and other authors, Elizabeth dwelt,
was about sixty-nine miles, as the author of the
life of Mary, Father Giuseppe of Jesus, one of
the barefooted Carmelites, asserts,* as also
Bede and Brocardo. But this did not prevent
the blessed Virgin, tender and delicate as she
then was, and not accustomed to such efforts,
from immediately setting forth moved by what ?
moved by that great charity with which her
most tender heart was ever filled, to go and
commence from that time her great office of
dispenser of graces. Precisely thus does St.
Ambrose speak of this her journey: She did not
go as if incredulous of the announcement, but
happy in her desire, hastening for joy, and in
tent upon her office. f Not that Mary, as the
saint says, went to inform herself of the truth
of what the angel had told her concerning
Elizabeth, but joyful through her desire to help
that household, hastening for the joy she felt to
do good to others, and wholly intent on that
charitable errand. Rising up, she went with
* L. 3, c. 12.

haste; "Exurgens abiit cum festinatione. 11
Here let it be observed that the Evangelist,
when he spoke of Mary going to the house of
Elizabeth, said that she went in haste: Abiit
festinatione; but speaking of her return from
that house, he makes no more mention of haste,
but simply says: "And Mary abode with her
about three months, and she returned to her own
house."* What other object, then, says St. Bona-
venture, caused the mother of God to hasten
when going to visit the house of the Baptist,
except the desire to do good to that family ?f

Certainly, since the assumption of Mary into
heaven, this her affection of charity towards
men has not ceased ; nay, it has ever been in
creasing, for there she better knows our
necessities, and feels more pity for our miseries.
Bernardine de Bustis writes, that Mary more
earnestly desires to do us good than we desire
to receive it from her.J To such a degree, that
St. Bonaventure says, she considers herself in
jured by those who do not ask favors of her;
for this is the desire of Mary, to enrich all with
her graces; for, indeed, according to the
assertion of the Idiot, she superabundantly en
riches her servants.}

Hence the same author says, that he who
finds Mary finds every good : "Inventa Mariaj
invenitur omne bonum." And he adds, that
every one can find her, were he even the most
abandoned sinner in the world; for she is so
gracious that she sends away none who have
recourse to her.* I invite all to come to me,
Thomas a Kempis makes her say, I wait for all,
I wish that all may come ; neither do I ever de-
epise any sinner who comes to seek my help,
however unworthy he may be.f All who go to
her asking favors, says Richard, will find her
always ready, always inclined to succor them,
and obtain for them every grace of eternal sal
vation by her powerful prayers : "Inveniet sem
per paratam auxiliari."

I have said by her powerful prayers, for this is
the other reflection which should increase our
confidence, namely, knowing that she obtains
from God whatever she asks in favor of her
servants. Observe especially, says St. Bonaven-
ture, in this visit that Mary made to Elizabeth,
the great virtue of the words of Mary ; for at
the sound of her voice the grace of the Holy
Spirit was given to Elizabeth as well as to
her son, as the Evangelist has written : "And it
came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the sal-

ntation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost."*
On which St. Bonaventure remarks: Behold,
how great is the virtue of the words of our
Lady, for at the sound of them the Holy Spirit
is given. f Theophilus of Alexandria says that
Jesus is much pleased when Mary prays to him
for us, for then all the graces which he bestows
on us through the supplications of Mary, he does
not consider to be conferred on us, but rather
on Mary herself. J And let these words be
noted: Persuaded by the prayers of his mother
he gives: "Precibus SUSB genitricis evictus,
donat." Yes, because Jesus, as St. Germanus
attests, cannot but graciously hear Mary in all
her petitions, wishing in this, as it were, to obey
her as his true mother; hence the saint says
that the prayers of this mother have a certain
authority with Jesus Christ, so that she obtains
pardon even for the greatest sinners, who com
mend themselves to her.

And this is indeed confirmed, as St. John
Chrysostom observes, by what took place at the

nuptials of Cana, where Mary, asking of her
Son the wine that was wanting, said: "They
have no wine;" Jesus answered: "Woman, what
is that to me and to thee ? my hour is not yet
come."* But although the time for miracles
has not yet arrived, as Chrysostom and Theo-
philactus explain; yet, says the same Chrysos
tom, our Saviour, in order to obey his mother,
performed the miracle she requested, and con
verted the water into wine.f

"Let us go therefore," thus the apostle ex
horts us, " with confidence to the throne of
grace; that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace in seasonable aid."J The throne of grace
is the blessed Virgin Mary, says the blessed
Albertus Magnus:" Thronus gratia est beata
Virgo Maria. " If, then, we wish for graces, let
U8 go to the throne of grace, which is Mary; and
let us go with the hope of being certainly heard;
for we have the intercession of Mary, who ob
tains whatever she asks of her Son. Let us ask
for grace, I repeat with St.Bernard, and through
Mary let us ask: " Qua3ramus gratiam et per
Mariam quseramus," trusting to what the Vir
gin mother said to St. Matilda, that the Holy
Spirit, filling her with all his sweetness, had

rendered her so dear to God that everyone wno t
through her intercession, asked for graces, woul^
certainly obtain them. *

And if we give credit to that celebrated
saying of St. Ansel ra: We shall sometimes find
grace sooner by having recourse to Mary, than
by having recourse to our Saviour Jesus him-
self;f not that he is not the source and Lord of
all graces, but because if we go to Mary, and
she intercedes for us, her prayers will have more
power, as the prayers of a mother, than ours.
Let us never then leave the feet of this treasurer
of graces, but say to her witli St. John Dama
scene: Open to us, oh blessed mother of God, the
door of thy mercy, for thou art the salvation of
the human race.J Oh mother of God, open to
us the door of thy mercy, by praying always for
us; for thy prayers are the salvation of all men.
And when we have recourse toMaiy, it would be
best to ask her to pray for us, and obtain for us
those graces which she knows are most ex
pedient for our salvation; which is precisely
what Brother Reginald, a Dominican, did, as is
related in the chronicles of the order. This
servant of Mary was infirm, and asked of her
the grace of bodily health. Our Lady appear-

ed to him, accompanied by St. Cecilia and St.
Catherine, and said to him with the greatest
sweetness: "My son, what shall I do for thee?"
The religious at this kind offer of Mary was
troubled, and knew not what to answer. Then
one of those saints gave him this counsel: "Re
ginald, do you know what you should do ? Do
not ask for any thing, place every thing at her
disposal, because Mary knows how to obtain for
thee a grace greater than you could ask." The
sick brother followed her advice, and the divine
mother obtained for him the grace of health.

But if we also desire the happy visits of this
queen of heaven, it will greatly aid us if we
often visit her before some image, <K in some
church dedicated to her. Let us read the follow
ing example, and learn with what special favors
she rewards the devout visits of her servants.

"EXAMPLE.

It is related in the Franciscan chronicles, that
two religious of that order, who were going to
visit a sanctuary of the Virgin, were overtaken
by night in a great wood, where they became be
wildered and so troubled that they knew not
what to do. But advancing a little, they dis
cerned through the darkness something which

t O O

seemed to them a house. They went groping
along with outstretched hands, and at length
touched a wall; they found the door, knocked,
and heard some one within asking who they were?
They answered that they were two poor religious

454 GLORIES OF MARY.

who bad lost their way by accident in that wood
and were seeking a shelter, that at least they might
not be devoured by wolves. But suddenly they
heard the door open, and saw two pages richly
dressed, who received them with great courtesy.
The religious asked them who inhabited that pal
ace? The pages answered that a very kind, good
Lady inhabited it. We wish to pay our respects
to her, said they, and thank her for her charity^
We will take you to her, said the pages, for she too
wishes to speak to you. They ascended the stairs,
found the apartments all illuminated, richly fur-
nished, and perfumed as with an odor of para,
disc; they finally entered the apartment of the
Lady, who was majestic and most lovely in her
appearance, and who welcomed them with the
greatest kindness, and then asked them in what
direction they were travelling? They answered
that they were going to visit a certain church
of the blessed Virgin. If that is the case, said
the Lady, when you go I will give you a letter
from myself, which will greatly aid you. And
whilst the Lady was speaking to them, they felt
all inflamed with love of God, and filled with
a joy such as they had never before experienc
ed. They afterwards went to rest, if perchance
they could sleep in the midst of so much joy,
and in the morning they went again to take
leave of the Lady of the mansion, thank her,
and at the same time receive the letter, they did
so and departed. But when they had gone a
little distance from the house, they perceived

GLORIES OF MARY. 455

that there was no superscription to the letter;
but they turned and returned, and could not
find the house again. At last they opened the
letter, to see to whom it was sent, and what it
contained, and found that it was from the most
holy Mary, and was written to themselves, and
let them know that she was the Lady whom
they saw the night before, and that on account
of the devotion they cherished for her, she had
provided a house and refreshment for them in
that wood. She exhorted them to continue to
serve and love her, for she would well reward
their devotion, and assist them in life and in
death. At the bottom of the letter they read
the signature of the Virgin Mary. We may
easily imagine the thanks that those good relig
ious offered to the divine mother, and how
greatly they were inflamed with the desire of
loving her and serving her to the end of their
lives.

PEATEK.

Immaculate and blessed Virgin, since thou art
the universal dispenser of all divine graces,
therefore ^hou art the hope of all, and also my
hope. I always thank my Lord that he hath
given me to know thec, and the means that I
must use to obtain graces and save myself.
Thou art this means, oh great mother of God,
for I now understand that it is principally
through the merits of Jesus Christ, and after
those, through thyjnt.ejrcesgion, that I am to be

456 GLORIES OF MAKY.

saved. Ah, my queen, thou didst make so great
haste to visit, and sanctify with thy visit, the
house of Elizabeth; ah, visit, and visit quickly
the poor house of my soul. Ah, hasten! thou
knowest better than I how poor it is, how infect
ed with many maladies, with irregular affections,
bad habits, and actual sin, all those fatal diseases
which will bring it to eternal death. Thou
canst enrich it, oh treasurer of God ! and thoa
canst heal all its infirmities. Visit me then in
life, and visit me especially at the hour of my
death, for then thy help will be more necessary
to me. I do not, indeed expect, neither am I
worthy that thou shouldst visit me on this earth
with thy visible presence, as thou hast done to
so many of thy servants, but servants not so
unworthy and ungrateful as I am. I will be
content to be allowed then to see thee in thy
kingdom of heaven, there to love thee better,
and thank thee for whatever good thou hast done
me. At present I will be content that thou
shouldst visit me with thy mercies. It is
enough that thou dost pray for me.

Pray for me then oh Mary, and commend me
to thy Son. Thou knowest better than now
myself, my miseries and my necessities. What
more would I say to thee? Have pity on me.
I am so miserable and ignorant that I do not
even know, and cannot even ask, the graces that
are most necessary for me. Oh my queen and
most sweet mother, ask thou and obtain for me,
from thy Son, those graces which thou knowest

GLOEIES OF MARY. 457

to be most useful and necessary k>r my soul.
Into thy hands I entirely abandon myself, and
only pray the divine Majesty, that through the
merits of my Saviour Jesus, he may grant me
those graces that thou dost ask of him for me.
Ask, ask then for me, oh most holy Virgin,
whatever thou esteemest best. Thy prayers are
never rejected. They are the prayers of a
mother to a Son, who loves thee so much, and
finds his joy in granting whatever thou dost ask
of him, thus the more to honor thee, and at the
same time, show thee the great love he bears
thee. Oh Lady, thus let it be. I will live
trusting in thee. Thou must think only on
saving me. Amen.

DISCOURSE VI.

ON THE PURIFICATION OF MARY.

The great sacrfice which Mary this day made to God in of
fering him t?ie life of her Son.

THERE were two precepts of the ancient law
concerning the birth of first-born sons. One
was, that the mother should remain as an un
clean person, retired in her house, for forty
days; after which she should go to purifv her
self in the temple. The other was, that the
parents of the first-born should take him to the
temple, and there offer him to God. On this
day the most holy Virgin desired to obey both

458 GLORIES OP MARY.

precepts. Although Mary was not bound by
the law of purification, since she was always a
virgin, and always pure; yet, by her love of
humility and odedience, she wished to go, like
other mothers, to be purified. At the same
time she obeyed the second precept, to present
and offer her Son to the eternal Father; "And
after the days of her purification, according to
the law of Moses, were accomplished, they car
ried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the
Lord."* But the Virgin offered him in a dif
ferent manner from that in which other mothers
offered their sons. Others offered them, but
they knew that this was a simple ceremony of
the law, through which, by redeeming them,
they made them their own, without the fear
that they should be obliged to offer them again,
and to death. Mary really offered her Son to
death, knowing certainly that the sacrifice of
L the life of Jesus which she then made, should
one day be actually consummated upon the altar
of the cross; so that Mary, by offering the life of
her Son through the love she bore this Son 3 really
sacrificed herself entirely to God . Laying aside,
then, all the other considerations which we
might make upon the various mysteries of this
festival, let us only consider how great was this
sacrifice that Mary made of herself to God, by
offering to him, on this day, the life of her Son.
And this will be the only subject of the follow*
ing discourse.

The eternal Father had already determined to
save man, who was lost through sin, and free
him from eternal death. But because he wished
that, at the same time, his divine justice should
not be defrauded of a full and due satisfaction,
he did not spare the life of his own Son, already
made man in order to redeem man; but he requir
ed that he should pay, to its most rigorous ex
tent, the penalty merited by men: "He that spar
ed not even his own Son," says the apostle, "but
delivered him up for us all."* He sent him
therefore on the earth to become man, destined
for him a mother, and chose the Virgin Mary;
but as he did not wish his divine Word to be
come her Son before she accepted him by her ex
press consent, so he did not wish that Jesus
should sacrifice his life for the salvation of men
without the concurrence of the consent of Mary,
that together with the sacrifice of the life of the
Son, the heart of the mother might be sacrificed
also. St. Thomas teaches, that the relation of
mother gives an especial right over her children;
hence Jesus, being innocent in himself and not
deserving any punishment for his own sins, it
seemed fitting that he should not be destined to
the cross as the victim for the sins of the world
without the consent of his mother, by which
she should voluntarily offer him to death.

But although Mary, from the moment she was
made mother of Jesus, gave her consent to his

death, yet the Lord wished her, on this day, to
make, in the temple, a solemn sacrifice of herself,
by offering solemnly her Son, and sacrificing to
the divine justice his precious life. Hence St.
Epiphanius called her a priest: "Virginem ap-
pello velut sacerdotem." * Now we begin to see
how much this sacrifice cost her, and what hero
ic virtue she was obliged to practise when she
had herself to sign the sentence of condemnation
of her dear Jesus to death.

Now behold Mary actually on her way to Je
rusalem to offer her Son; she hastens her steps
towards the place of sacrifice, and she herself
carries her beloved victim in her arms. She
enters the temple, approaches the altar, and
there, filled with modesty, humility, and devo
tion, she presents her Son to the Most High. At
this N moment St. Simeon, who had received the
promise from God that he should not die before
seeing the expected Messias, takes the divine
child from the hands of the Virgin, and, enlight
ened by the Holy Spirit, announces to her how
much sorrow this sacrifice must cause her, this
sacrifice which she was about to make of her Son,
with whom must her blessed soul also be sacrific
ed. Here St. Thomas of Villanova contemplates
the holy old man, who, when he had come to an
nounce the fatal prophecy to this poor mother,
is agitated and silent, f Then the saint considers
Mary, who asks: Why, oh Simeon, in the time
of so great consolation, are you thus disturbed?
* Or. de Laud. Deip. t Serm. de Purific. Virg.

GLOEIES OF MARY. 461

"Unde tanta turbatio?" To whom he answers:
Oh, noble and holy Virgin, I wished not to an
nounce to thee such bitter tidings, but since the
Lord wishes it thus, for thy greater merit, hear
what I say to thee.* This infant who now caus
es thee, and with reason, so much joy, oh God,
shall one day bring thee the most cruel suffering
that any creature has ever experienced in the
world; and this will be when thou shalt see him
persecuted by men of every sort, and placed on
earth as the mark of their sneers and derision,
even until he is put to death before thy eyes.f
Know that after his death there will be many
martyrs who, for love of this thy Son, will be
tormented and slain; but if their martyrdom
will be of the body, thy martyrdom, oh divine
mother, will be of the heart, t

Yes, of the heart, for nothing but compassion
for the sufferings of this Son so dear could be
meant by the sword of sorrow that St. Simeon
predicted was to pierce the heart of the mother:
"And thy own soul a sword shall pierce. "*
Already the most holy Virgin, as St. Jerome
says, had been enlightened through the divine
Scriptures to know the sufferings which the Re
deemer was to endure in his life, and still more
at the time of his death. She well understood

from the prophets, that he was to be betrayed
by one of his friends: "Who ate my bread bath
greatly supplanted me;"* as David predicted.
Abandoned by his disciples: Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered: "Percute Pas-
torem, et dispergentur oves."f Well did she
know the insults, spitting, blows, and derision
that he was to suffer from the people; " I have
given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to
them that plucked them; I have not turned
away my face from them that rebuked me and
spit upon me."J She knew that he was to be
come the scandal of men, and the outcast of the
lowest of the people: " But I am a worm and no
man, the reproach of men and the outcast of
the people," even to be laden with insults and
outrages: "He shall be filled with reproaches."!
She knew that at the end of his life his sacred
flesh would be torn and bruised by scourges:
"He was wounded from our iniquities, he was
bruised for our sins," 1 ]" so that his body would
be wholly disfigured by them, become as a lep
er, all sores; "There is no beauty in him, nor
comeliness, and we have thought him, as it were,
a leper,"**even till the bones were uncovered:

"They have numbered all my bones."* She
knew that he was to be pierced by nails, f That
he was to be reputed with the wicked. J And that
finally he was to die, hanging on the cross, slain
for the salvation of men: " And they shall look
upon me whom they have pierced. "

Mary, I repeat, already knew all the suffer
ings that her Son was to endure, but in the
above quoted words of St. Simon: "And thy
own soul a sword shall pierce," as the Lord
revealed to St. Theresa, all the minute circum
stances of the external as well as internal suf
ferings which her Lord Jesus was to endure in
his passion, were made known to her. She con
sented to all with a firmness which made the
angels wonder, and pronounced the sentence
that her Son should die, and die by a death so
ignominious and painful, in these words: Eter
nal Father, since thou dost will it, not my will,
but thine be done: "Non mea voluntas, sed tua
fiat; " I unite mine to thy holy will, and sacri
fice to thee this my Son; I am satsified that he
should lose his life for thy glory, and for the
salvation of the world. And I also sacrifice to thee
my heart; let grief pierce it as much as pleases thee;
it suffices to me that thou, oh my God, art glorified
and satisfied ; not my will, but thine be done. Oh,
charity without measure! oh, constancy
without example! oh, victory, that merits the eter*
nal admiration of heaven and of earth!

And hence Mary, in the passion of Jesus was
silent when he was unjustly accused; she said
nothing to Pilate, who was inclined to liberate
him, for he had already known his innocence;
but she only appeared in the public to be pres
ent at the great sacrifice, which was to be
offered on Calvary. She accompanied him to the
place of punishment ; she was with him from
the first moment he was placed upon the cross:
There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother:
"Stabat juxta crucem Jesu mater ejus;" until
she saw him expire, and the sacrifice was consum
mated. And all this to complete the offering
which she had already made of him to God in
the temple.

In order to understand the violence that
Mary had to offer herself in making this sac
rifice, it would be necessary to comprehend the
love which this mother bore to Jesus. Gener
ally speaking, the love of mothers is so tender
for their children, that when they are at the
point of death, and they are about to lose them,
they forget all their faults, their defects, and
even the injuries they have received from them,
and they suffer an inexpressible grief. And
yet the love of those mothers is a love divided
among other children, or among other creatures.
Mary has one only Son, and he is the most
beautiful of all the children of Adam; he is
most amiable, for he has all lovable qualities;
he is obedient, virtuous, innocent, holy, in one
word, he is God. The lore of this mother too

GLORIES OF MARY. 46i

is not divided among other objects; she has cen
tered all her love upon this only Son, neither
does she fear loving him to excess, for this Son
is God, who merits an infinite love. And this
Son is the victim whom she had voluntarily
to offer to death.

Let every one consider, then, how much it
must have cost Mary to sacrifice on the cross the
life of a Son so amiable, and what strength of
mind she must have exercised in tihis act. Be
hold the most fortunate of mothers, because she
is the mother of a God, but she is at the same
time a mother most worthy of compassion, be
cause the most afflicted; being the mother of a
Son whom she saw destined to the cross from
the day when he was given her for a Son !
What mother would accept a son, knowing that
afterwards she should lose him by such a painful
and infamous death, and that she should be
present to see him die ? Mary willingly accept
ed this Son with so hard a condition; and not
only accepted him, but offers him herself this
day, with her own hands, to death, sacrificing
him to the divine justice. St. Bonaventure says,
that the blessed Virgin would willingly have
taken upon herself the sufferings and death of
her Son; but to obey God she made the great
offering of the divine life of her beloved Jesus,
conquering, but with the greatest grief, all the
tenderness of love that she bore him.* Hence

it is, that in this offering Mary had to do more
violence to herself, and was more generous, than
if she had offered herself to suffer all her Son
Was to suffer. Therefore she surpassed all the
martyrs in generosity, for the martyrs offered
their own lives; but the Virgin offered the life
of her Son, whom she loved and esteemed in-
finitely more than her own life.

Neither did the suffering of this painful offer
ing end here; rather it commenced here; for
from that time forward, through the whole life
of her Son, Mary had always before her eyes
death, and all the pains he was to suffer in his
death. Hence, the more this Son discovered to
her how beautiful, graceful, and amiable he was,
BO much more did the anguish of her heart con
stantly increase. Ah, afflicted mother ! if thou
hadst loved thy Son less, or if thy Son had been
less lovely, and had loved thee less, thy suffering
would certainly have been less in offering him
to death. But there never has been, and there
never will be, a more loving mother than thou,
because there never has been, and never will be,
a son more amiable and more loving towards
his mother than thy Jesus. Oh God ! if we had
seen the beauty, the majesty of countenance of
that divine child, could we have had the courage
to sacrifice his life for our salvation ? And thou,
oh Mary ! who art his mother, and a mother so
loving, couldst thou offer thy innocent Son foi
the salvation of men, to a death more painful
and more cruel than any criminal had ever enr
dured on this earth?

GLORIES OF MARY. 467

Alas! what a fearful scene from that day for
ward did love continually place before the eyei
of Mary, representing to her all the injuries and
mockeries which were to be offered to her poor
Son! Behold love already representing him to
her in his agony in the garden, then torn by
scourges, and crowned with thorns in the hall of
Pilate, and finally hanging from the infamous
wood on Calvary! Behold, oh mother, said love,
what a lovely and innocent Son thou hast offered
to such sufferings, and to so dreadful a death!
And of what avail will it be to thee to rescue
him from the hands of Herod, in order to reserve
him for so piteous an end?

Thus Mary not only offered her Son to death
in the temple, but was offering him up at every
moment of her life; for she revealed to St.
Bridget, that this grief which St. Simeon an
nounced to her, never left her heart till she was
assumed into heaven.* Hence St. Anselm says:
Oh Lady, I cannot believe, that with such a
sorrow thou wouldst have been able to live one
moment, if God himself, who gives life, had not
strengthened thee by his divine power.f And
St. Bernard affirms, speaking of the great sor
row that Mary endured on this day, that hence
forth she suffered a living death, bearing a grief
more cruel than death. J She lived, dying at

every moment, because grief for the death of
her beloved Jesus, which was more cruel than
any death, was at every moment assailing her.

The divine mother then, on account of the
great merit she acquired in this great sacrifice,
which she made to God for the salvation of the
world, was justly called by St. Augustine: The
restorer of the human race: " Reparatrix generis
humani."* By St. Epiphanius: The redeemer
of captives: "Redemptrix captivorum."f By St.
Ildephonsus: The restorer of the ruined world:
"Reparatrix perditi orbis."J By St. Germanus:
The consolation of our miseries: "Restauratio
ealamitatum nostrarum." By St. Ambrose:
The mother of all believers: "Mater omnium
credenti urn. "|| By St. Augustine: The mother
of the living: " Mater viventium." T By St.
Andrew of Crete: The mother of life: "Mater vi-
tse."** For, as St. Arnold Carnotensis says: In
the death of Jesus, Mary united her will to that
of her Son in such a manner, that both offered
the same sacrifice; and therefore the holy ab
bot says, that thus the Son and the mother effect
ed human redemption, obtaining salvation for
men.ff Jesus by satisfying for our sins, Mary
by obtaining for us that this satisfaction should
be applied to us. And hence blessed Denis the

Carthusian likewise affirms, that the divina
mother may be called the salvation of the world,
eince by the pain she endured in commiserating
her Son (voluntarily sacrificed by her to divine
justice), she merited that the merits of the
Redeemer should be communicated to men.*

Mary, then, having been made the mother of
all the redeemed, by the merit of her sufferings,
and of the offering of her Son; it is just to
believe that only by her hand may be given
them the milk of those divine graces, which are
the fruits of the merits of Jesus Christ, and the
means to obtain life eternal. And it is to this
that St. Bernard alludes, when he says that God
has placed in the hands of Mary the whole
price of our redemption.! By which the saint
gives us to understand, that by means of the in
tercession of the blessed Virgin, the merits of
the Redeemer are applied to souls, as by her
hand these graces are dispensed, which are pre
cisely the price of the merits of Jesus Christ.

And if the sacrifice of Abraham in offering up
to him his son Isaac so pleased God that he
promised, as a reward, to multiply his descend
ants as the stars of heaven: "Because thou hast
done this thing, and hast not spared thy only be
gotten son for my sake, I will bless thee, and I

will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven;"*
we must certainly believe that the more remark
able sacrifice which this great mother made of
Jesus was much more agreeable to the Lord ,
and, therefore, it has been granted her, that by
her prayers, the number of the elect should be
multiplied, that is, the favored succession of her
children, for she holds and protects as such her
devoted servants.

St. Simeon received a promise from God that
he should not die until he had seen the Messiah
born: "And he had received an answer from the
Holy Ghost, that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord."f
But he did not receive this grace except by means
of Mary, for he did not see the Saviour until he
saw him in the arms of Mary. Hence, whoever
wishes to find Jesus, will not find him except
through Mary. Let us, then, go to this divine
mother if we wish to find Jesus; and let us go
with great confidence. Mary said to her servant
Prudentiana Zagnoni,J that every year, on this
day of the purification, a great mercy would be
shown to some sinner. Who knows but one of
us may to-day be that favored sinner? If our
sins are great, greater is the power of Mary.
The Son can deny nothing to this mother, says

St. Bernard.* If Jesus is offended with us,
Mary immediately appeases him. Plutarch re
lates that Antipater wrote to Alexander the
Great a long letter of accusations against
Olympias, the mother of Alexander. Having
read the letter, he answered: "Does not Anti-
pater know that one tear of my mother is enough
to cancel an endless number of letters of ac
cusation ?" f Thus we may imagine Jesus would
also answer to the accusations which the devil
presents him against us when Mary is praying
him for us: Does not Lucifer know that one
prayer of my mother, in favor of a sinner, is
enough to make me forget all the accusations
of offences committed against me? The follow
ing example is a proof of this.

EXAMPLE.

This example is not recorded in any book, but
a priest, a companion of mine, related it to me,
as having happened to himself. Whilst this
priest was hearing confessions in a certain
church (for sufficient reasons he did not mention
the place where this occurred, although the peni
tent gave him leave to publish the fact), a youth
stood before him, who appeared to wish and not
to wish to come to confession. The Father,
after looking at him several times, at length call
ed him, and asked him if he wished to make his

confession. He answered, yes; but as he requir
ed a longtime for it, the confessor took him into
a retired room. There the penitent began by-
telling him that he was a foreigner, and of noble
birth, but be could not believe that it was possible
for God to pardon him after the life he had led.
Besides innumerable other sins he had committed
of impurity, homicide, &c., he said, that being en
tirely in despair of salvation, he had set about com
mitting sins, not so much for his own gratifica
tion, as to defy God, and manifest the hatred he
bore him. He said, that among other things, he
had with him a crucifix, which he had beaten
out of contempt. He said that just before, on
that very morning, he had made a sacrilegious
communion, and for what object? That he
might put under his feet the consecrated wafer.
And that, in fact, he had actually received, and
was about to put in execution this horrible in
tention, but was prevented by the people who ob
served him. He then consigned to the confess
or the consecrated host, wrapped in a paper, and
told him that as he was passing by that church
he had a great desire to enter. He could not
resist this desire, and had entered. That then
he felt great remorse of conscience, together
with a certain confused and irresolute desire to
make his confession. For this reason he had
placed himself before the confessional, but
while standing there he felt so confused and
timid, that he wished to go away, but it seemed
as if some one had retained him by force: "Un-

GLOKIES OF MAKY. 473

til," he said, "you, Father, called me; and now
I find myself hero; I find myself making my
confession; but I know not how to do it." The
Father then asked him if he had practised any
act of devotion during that time; meaning tow
ards the most holy Mary ; for such sudden con
versions only come through the powerful hands
of the Virgin. "None, Father; what devotion
could I offer," answered the youth, when I be
lieved myself lost?" "But try to remember more
carefully," replied the Father. "Father, noth
ing." But accidentally putting his hand to his
breast, he remembered that he wore the Scapu
lar of the Seven Dolors of Mary: "Maria addol-
orata." "Ah, my son," said the confessor to
him, "do you not see that our blessed Lady has
bestowed this grace upon you? And know," he
added, "that this church is a church of our bless
ed Lady." Hearing this, the youth was mov
ed to contrition, and began to weep. He con
fessed his sins, and his compunction increased
to such a degree that, bursting into tears, he
fell, overcome with grief, as it seemed, at the
feet of the Father, who, having restored him by
a cordial, finally finished hearing his confession,
and absolved him with the greatest consolation,
as he was entirely contrite and resolved to
amend his life. The Father sent him back to his
own country after having obtained from him
full liberty to preach and publish everywhere
the great mercy exercised by Mary towards
him.

474 GLORIES OF MARY.

PRATER.

Oh holy mother of God my mothbi A*jry, didst
thou then feel so great care of my salvation
that thou didst even consent to offer up to death
the object dearest to thy heart, thy beloved Je
sus? If thou, then, hast so greatly desired to see me
saved, it is just that next to God I should place
in thee all my hopes. Oh, blessed Virgin, I do
indeed confide entirely in thee. Oh, by the
merit of this great sacrifice of the life of thy
Son which to-day thou hast offered to God, pray
him to have pity on my soul, for which this im
maculate Lamb did not refuse to die upon the
cross.

To-day, oh my queen, I also, in imitation of
thee wish to offer my poor heart to God; but I
fear that he will refuse it, seeing it thus filthy
and loathsome. But if thou wilt offer it to him,
he will not refuse it. All the offerings made
him by thy most pure hands he accepts and re
ceives. To thee, then, oh Mary, I present my
self to-day, miserable as I am, and to thee I give
myself entirely. Offer me as thine to the eter
nal Father and to Jesus, and pray him that
through the merits of his Son, and by thy favor,
he may accept me, and take me for his own.
Ah, my sweetest mother, for the love thou bear-
est this Son whom thou hast sacrificed, aid me
always, and do not abandon me. Do not permit
that I should one day lose, through my sins,
this my most loving Redeemer, to-day offered

GLOKIES OF MARY. 475

by thee with so much anguish to die on the cross.
Say to him that I am thy servant; say to him
that in thee I have placed all my hope; say to
him, in a word, that thou dost wish for my
salvation, and he will certainly graciously hear
thee. Amen.

DISCOURSE VII.

ON THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY.

ON this day the Church proposes to us to
celebrate two solemn observances in honor of
Mary: one, her happy departure from this earth;
the other, her glorious assumption into heaven.
In the present discourse we shall speak of her
departure from this earth, and in the next of
her assumption.

How precious was the death of Mary! 1st,
On account of the special grace which attended
it; 2d, On account of the manner of it.

Death being the punishment of sin, it would
seem that the divine mother, all holy and ex
empt from every stain, should not be subject to
death, nor suffer the same misfortune as the
children of Adam, who are infected by the poison
of sin. But God, wishing Mary in all things
to be like to Jesus, required, as the Son had
died, that the mother should also die; and be
cause he wishes to give to the just an example
of the blessed death prepared for them, he
decreed that the virgin should die, but bj a

476 GLORIES OP MARY.

sweet and happy death. Hence we will enter
upon the consideration, how precious was the
death of Mary. 1st. On account of the special
grace by which it was accompanied. 2d. On
account of the manner in which it took place.

Point First. Three things render death bitter,
namely, attacli merit to earth, remorse for sin,
and the uncertainty of salvation. But the death
of Mary was entirely free from any such causes
of bitterness, and was attended by many circum
stances which rendered it precious and joyful.
She died as she had always lived, entirely de
tached from all earthly things; she died in the
most perfect peace of conscience; she died in
the certainty of eternal glory.

And in the first place, there is no doubt that
attachment to the goods of earth renders the
death of the worldly bitter and miserable, as the
Holy Spirit says: "Oh! death, how bitter is the
remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace
in his possessions!"* But because the saints die
detached from the things of the world, their
death is not bitter, but sweet, lovely, and pre
cious; or, as St. Bernard explains, it is worthy
being purchased at any price. Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord: "Beati mortui qui in
Domino moriuntur."f Who are they that being
dead, die? Precisely those happy souls that
pass into eternity, already detached, and, as it

were, dead to all affections for terrestrial things,
having found in God alone there every good;
as St. Francis of Assisium, who exclaimed: My
God, and my all: "Deus nieus et ornnia." But
what soul was ever more detached from the
things of the world, and more united to God,
than the beautiful soul of Mary? She was in
deed entirely detached from her parents, since
at the age of three years, when children are
most dependent on their parents, and have the
greatest need of their assistance, Mary with so
great resolution left them, and went to shut her
self up in the temple to attend to the things of
God. She was detached from riches, contented
to live always poor, and supporting herself with
the labor of her hands. She was detached from
honors, loving an humble and abject life,
although queenly honor belonged to her, for she
traced her descent from the kings of Israel. The
Virgin herself revealed to St. Elizabeth, a Ben
edictine nun, that when she was left in the tem
ple by her parents, she resolved in her heart to
have no other father, and to love no other good
but God.

St. John saw Mary represented in that woman
clothed with the sun, who held the moon under
her feet. " And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and
the moon under her feet."* Interpreters ex
plain the moon to signify the goods of this
earth, that are uncertain, and change as the

moon does. All these goods Mary never had in
her heart, but always despised them and kept
them under her feet; living in this world as a
solitary turtle-dove in a desert; placing her
affection on no earthly thing, so that it was
said of her: The voice of the turtle is heard in
our land; "Vox turturis audita est in terra nos-
tra." * And again, "Who is she that goeth up
by the desert ? "f whence Rupert says: "Thou
hast gone up by the desert, that is, having a
solitary soul." J Mary, then, having always
lived entirely detached from the things of
earth, and only united to God, not bitter, but
very sweet and dear to her was death, which
united her more closely to God, by the eternal
bonds of paradise.

Secondly, peace of conscience renders the
death of the just precious. The sins committed
in life are those worms that the most torment
and gnaw the heart of poor dying sinners, who,
about to be presented at the divine tribunal, see
themselves at that moment surrounded by their
sins, which terrify them, and pursue them with
cries, as St Bernard says: "We are thy works,
we will not desert thee." Certainly Mary
could not be afflicted in death by any remorse
of conscience, for she was always holy, always
pure, and always free from every shade of
actual and original sin; hence it was said of her:

* Vox turturis audita est in terra nostra. Cant. ii. 12.

t Quae est ieta qute ascendit per deeertum, etc. Cant. iii. 6,

$ Tails asceudisti per desertum, idest animam habeas golitariam.

| Opera tua sumus, non te deeeremus.

GLORIES OF MARY. 470

Thou art all fair, oh my love, and there is not a
spot in thee: "Tota pulchra es, arnica mea, et
macula non est in te."* As soon as she had
the use of reason, that is, from the first moment
of her immaculate conception in the womb of
St. Ann, from that time she began with all her
powers to love her God; and thus she continued
to do, ever advancing more in perfection and
love through her whole life. All her thoughts,
her desires, her affections, were wholly given to
God; not a word, not a motion, not a glance of
the eye, not a breath of hers that was not for
God and for his glory, never departing one step,
nor separating herself for one moment from the
divine love. Ah ! in the happy hour of her
death how did all the lovely virtues which she
practised during her life surround her blessed
bed ! That faith so constant, that affectionate
confidence in God, that patience so strong in the
midst of sufferings, that humility in the midst
of so many privileges, that modesty, that meek
ness, that compassion for souls, that zeal for the
divine glory, and above all, that perfect charity
towards God, with that entire uniformity to the
divine will all, in a word, thronged around her,
and consoling her, said; We are thy works, we
will not desert thee: "Opera tua sumus, non te
deseremus." Oh Lady and mother, we are all
children of thy loving heart; now that thou art
leaving this miserable life, we will not leave
thee, we also will go to attend thee and honor
* Cant. ir. T.

480 GLOKIES OF MARY

thee in paradise, where, by our means, tbou wilt
be crowned queen of all men and of all the
angels.

In the third place, the certainty of eternal sal
vation renders death sweet. Death is called a
passage, since, through death we pass from this
short life to life eternal. And, as the dread is
great of those who die in doubt of their salvation,
and who approach the solemn moment with just
fear of passing into an eternal death, thus, on
the other hand, very great is the joy of the saints
at the end of life, hoping with some security to
go and possess God in heaven. A. nun of the or
der of St. Theresa, when the physician announced
to her that death was near, was so full of joy
that she said to him: "And how does it happen,
sir, that you tell me this good news and ask no
fee for it?" St. Lawrence Justinian being at
the point of death, and seeing his friends weep
ing around him, said to them : "Away, away
with your tears, this is no time for tears."* Go
elsewhere to weep; if you will remain with me
you must rejoice, as I rejoice, in seeing the gate
of paradise open to unite me with my God. And
thus, also, a St. Peter of Alcantara, a St. Louis
of Gonzaga, and so many other saints, on hear
ing that death was at hand, burst forth into ex
clamations of joy and gladness. And yet they
were not certain of the divine favor, nor secure
of their own sanctity, as Mary was secure of hers.
But what joy must the divine mother have felt
* Abito, abite com lacrymis vestris; non est terupus lacrymarum.

GLORIES OF MARY. 481

in learning that her death was at hand; she, who
had the fullest security of enjoying the divine
favor, especially after the angel Gabriel
had assured her that she was full of grace, and
already possessed God! "Hail, full of grace, the
Lord is with thee .... thou hast found grace."*
And well did she herself know that her heart
was burning continually with divine love, for
that as Bernardine de Bustis says, Mary, by a
singular grace not granted to any other saint,
loved, and was always actually occupied in lov
ing God every moment of her life, and so ar
dently, that, as St. Bernard says, it required a
perpetual miracle to preserve her life in the
midst of such burning flames.

It was before said to M;iry in the sacred can
ticles: "Who is she that goeth up by the des
ert as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of
myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders
of the perfumer?"! Her entire mortification
was prefigured in the myrrh, her fervent pray
ers were signified by the incense, and all her
holy virtues united to her perfect charity tow
ards God, kindled in her a flame so great, that
her holy soul, wholly devoted to, and consumed
by divine love, arose continually to God as a
pillar of smoke that on all sides breathed sweet
odor. As a pillar of smoke, oh blessed Lady,

wrote Rupert, thou hast breathed forth a sweet
odor to the Most High.* And Eustachius still
more strongly expresses it: A pillar of smoke,
because burning interiorly as a holocaust with
the flame of divine love, she sent forth a most
sweet odor.f As the loving Virgin lived, such
she died. As the divine love gave her life, so it
gave her death; for she died as the holy Doc
tors and Fathers of the Church generally affirm,
of no other infirmity than pure love; for St. II-
dephonsus says, that Mary either ought not to
die, or only die of love.

Second Point. But let us now see what were
the circumstances of her happy death. After
the ascension of Jesus Christ, Mary remained on
earth to attend to the propagation of the faith.
Hence the disciples of Jesus had recourse to her,
and she resolved their doubts, comforted them
in their persecutions, and encouraged them to
labor for the divine glory and for the salvation
of the souls redeemed by her Son. She, indeed,
willingly remained on earth, understanding this
to be the will of God for the good of the Church;
but she could not but feel the pain of being far
from the presence and sight of her beloved Son,
who had ascended into heaven. "Where your
treasure is," said the Redeemer, "there will your
heart be also."| Where any one believes his

treasure and his happiness to lie, there he always
holds the love and desire of his heart fixed. If
Mary then loved no other good than Jesus, he be-
ingin heaven, in heaven were all her desires. Tau-
lerns wrote of Mary: The eellof Mary was hea
ven, "Marise cella fuit co3lum,"* for being in hea
ven, with her affection, she made it her continual
abode. Her school was eternity: "Schola aeter-
nitas," for she was always detached from tern-
poral possessions. Her teacher, divine truth:
"Psedagogus divina veritas," for she was always
guided in her actions by the divine light. Her
mirror, the Divinity; "Speculum divinitas," for
she looked upon nothing but God, in order to
conform always to the divine will. Her orna
ment, devotion: "Ornatus ejus devotio," for she
was always ready to fulfil the divine commands.
Her repose, union with God: "Quies unitas cum
Deo," for her peace was only in uniting herself
with God. In a word, the place and treasure
of her heart was God alone: "Cordis illius locua
et thesaurus solus Deus erat." The most holy
Virgin consoled her loving heart during this
cruel separation, by visiting, as it is narrated,
the holy places of Palestine, where her Son had
been in his lifetime: she often visited now the sta
ble of Bethlehem, where her Son was born; now
the w*rkshop at Nazareth, where her Son had liv-
d FO many years poor and despised; now the gar-
den of Gethsemane, where her Son commenced
Bis passion: now the hall of Pilate, where he was

de Nat. V. Mar.

484 GLORIES OF MARY.

scourged; the place where he was crowned; but
more often she visited Calvary, where her Son
had expired; and the holy sepulchre, where she
finally had left him. And thus the most loving
mother used to soothe the pains of her cruel ex
ile. But this was not enough to satisfy her
heart, which could not find its perfect rest upon
this earth; hence her continual sighs were ascend
ing to her Lord, as she exclaimed with David,
but with more ardent love: "Who will give me
wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest."*
Who will give me wings like a dove to fly to
my God and there to find my rest? "As the
hart panteth after the fountains of water, so
my soul panteth after thee, oh God."f As the
wounded stag pants for the fountain, so my
soul, wounded by thy love, oh my God, desires
and sighs for thee. Ah, the sighs of this holy
turtle-dove could not but reach the heart of her
God,who loved her so much: "The voice of the
turtle is heard in our land." Wherefore not be
ing willing to defer any longer consolation to
his beloved, behold, he graciously hears her de
sire and calls her to his kingdom.

Cedrenus,* Nicephorus, and Metaphrastes,]
relate, that the Lord, some days before his death,
sent to her the angel Gabriel, the same who once
announced to her that she was the blessed woman

chosen to be the mother of God: My Lady and
Queen, said the angel to her, God has already
graciously heard thy holy desires, and he has
sent me to tell thee to prepare to leave the earth,
for he wishes thee with him in paradise. Come
then, to take possession of thy kingdom, for I
and all its holy citizens await and desire thee.
At this happy annunciation what should our
most humble and holy Virgin do but conceal her
self more deeply in the centre of her most pro
found humility, and reply in those same words
with which she answered St. Gabriel when he
announced to her that she was to become moth
er of God: Behold the handmaid of the Lord:
"Ecce ancilla Domini ? " Behold, she again an
swered, the servant of the Lord; he in his pure
goodness has chosen me and made me his moth
er; now he calls me to paradise. I neither mer
ited the one or the other honor; but since he
wishes to manifest his infinite liberality towards
me, I am ready to go where he wishes. "Behold
the handmaid of the Lord; " may the will of my
God and Lord always bo fulfilled in me.

After receiving this precious intelligence, she
imparted it to St. John, and we may imagine
with what grief and tender emotion he heard
this news; he who for so many years had been
near her as a son, and had enjoyed the celestial
conversation of this most holy mother. She
then visited anew the holy places of Jerusalem,
tenderly taking leave of them, especially of Cal
vary, where her beloved Son had died. And

486 GLORIES OF MARY.

then she returned to her poor dwelling to pre*
pare for death. During this time the angels did
not cease to come and visit this their beloved
queen, consoling themselves with the thought
that they should soon see her crowned in heaven.
Many authors assert,* that before she died, by
a divine miracle, the apostles and also some of
the disciples came from the different places
where they were dispersed, and all assembled in
the apartment of Mary, and that when she saw
all these her dear children united together in
her presence, she thus addressed them: My dear
children, for love of you, and to help you, my
Son left me on this earth. But now the holy
faith is spread throughout the world, already
the fruit of the divine seed is grown up; hence
my divine Son, seeing that my assistance was no
longer needed upon the earth, and compassion
ating me for the pain of separation, has gracious
ly heard my desire to depart from this life, and
go to see him in glory. If I leave you, my
heart does not leave you; I will carry with me
the great love I bear you, and it shall always
remain with me. I am going to paradise to pray
for you. At these sad tidings, who can realize
how great were the tears and lamentations of
these holy disciples, knowing that they were
shortly to be separated from their mother ?
Then, they all in tears exclaimed, then, oh Mary,
thou wilt leave us ! It is true that this earth is
not a worthy and fit place for thee, and that we

are not worthy to enjoy the society of a mother
of God; but remember that thou art our mother;
thou hast until now enlightened us in our doubts,
consoled our sorrows, strengthened us in per-
eecutions, and how canst thou now abandon us,
leaving us alone without thy comfort in the
midst of so many enemies and so many conflicts ?
We hare already lost on earth Jesus, our master
and our Father, who has ascended into heaven;
we have since been consoled by thee, our moth
er; and now how canst thou leave us orphans,
without father or mother ? Oh remain with us,
oh our Lady ! or take us with thee. Thus writes
St. John Damascene.* "No, my children (thus
sweetly the loving queen began to speak) this is
not according to the will of God; content your
selves to do what lie has appointed for you and
for me. To you it yet remains to labor on the
earth for the glory of your Redeemer, and to
perfect your eternal crown. I do not leave you
to abandon you, but to help you more by my in
tercession with God in heaven. Be satisfied.
I commend to you the holy Church; I commend
to you the souls redeemed by my Son; let this
be my last farewell, and the only remembrance
that I leave you. If you love me, labor for
souls, and for the glory of my Son; for we shall
one day meet again in paradise, never more to
separate throughout eternity."

Then she begged them to give burial to her
body after death, blessed them, and directed St.

* Orat. de Ass. Virg.

488 GLOEIES OF MAKY.

John, as Damascene relates,* that after he!
death he should give her two garments to two
virgins who had served her for some time, and
then she decently composed herself upon her
poor little bed, where she laid herself to await
death, and with death the meeting with her
divine spouse, who shortly was to come and
take her with him to the kingdom of the blessed.
Behold, she already feels in her heart a great
joy, the forerunner of the coming of the spouse,
which overwhelms her with a great and new
sweetness. The holy apostles, seeing that Mary
already was about to depart from this earth,
burst forth into fresh weeping, and knelt around
her bed: some kissed her holy feet, others asked
her special blessing, one recommended to her
some particular necessity of his, and all wept
bitterly, for their hearts were pierced with grief
at being obliged to separate forever in this life
from their beloved Lady. And she, their most
loving mother, compassionated all, consoled all,
promising to some her protection, blessing oth
ers with peculiar affection, and encouraging
others to labor for the conversion of the world;
especially did she call St. Peter to her, and as
head of the Church, and vicar of her Son, she
recommended to him in particular the propaga
tion of the faith, promising him her special pro
tection from heaven. But in a very special
manner did she call to her St. John, who felt

a greater sorrow than all the others at the
moment of separation from that holy mother;
and the most grateful Lady, calling to mind the
affection and attention with which this holy
disciple had served her through all the years
they had passed on earth since the death of her
Son, said to him with great tenderness: My
John, I thank thee for all the assistance thou
hast afforded me; my son, be certain that I
never will be ungrateful to thee for it. If I
leave thee now, I am going to pray for thee.
Remain in peace in this life until we meet iri
heaven, where I will await thee. Do not forget
me; in all thy necessities call me to thy aid, for
I never will forget thee, my beloved son. My
son, I bless thee, I leave thee my benediction;
rest in peace adieu.

But the death of Mary draws near. The di
vine love, with its blessed and ardent flames,
have almost entirely consumed the vital spirits,
the celestial phoenix is going to lose her life in the
midst of this fire. Then the host of angels come
lo meet her,as if to be ready for the great triumph
with which they were to accompany her to par
adise.

Mary was indeed consoled at the sight of
Ihese holy spirits; but not fully consoled, for
she did not yet see her beloved Jesus, who was
the whole love of her heart. Hence she often
repeated to the angels who descended to salute
her: "I adjure you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, if
you find my beloved, that you tell him that I

490 GLORIES OP MARY.

languish with love."* Oh holy angels! oh bless
ed citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem! ye come
in hosts kindly to console me, and ye all console
me with your sweet presence; I thank you, but
ye all do not fully satisfy me, for I do not yet
gee my Son coming to console me Go, if you
love me, return to paradise, and tell my be
loved, from me, that I languish and faint for his
love. Tell him to come, and come quickly, for
I am dying with my desire to see him.

But behold, Jesus himself comes to take his
mother to the kingdom of the blessed. It was
revealed to St. Elizabeth, that the Son appeared
to Mary before she expired, with the cross in
his hand, to show the special glory he had ob
tained from the redemption, having by his
death made the acquisition of this great creat
ure, who through the ages of eternity was to
honor him more than all men and all angels.
St. John of Damascus relates, that he gave
to her the holy viaticum, saying to her, tenderly:
Take, oh my mother, from my hands, that same
body which thou hast given me. And the moth
er having received with the greatest love
that final communion, with her last sighs said to
him: My Son, into thy hands I commend my
spirit; I recommend to thee this soul that thou,
in thy goodness didst create even from the be
ginning, rich in so many graces, and by a peculiar
privilege hast preserved from every stain of sin.
I commend to thee my body, from which thou

hast deigned to take flesh and blood. I com
mend to thee, also, these my dear children
(speaking of the holy disciples who were around
her), they are afflicted at my departure ; do
thou console them, who lovest them more than
I do, bless them, and give them strength to do
great things for thy glory.*

The end of the life of Mary having now ar
rived, there was heard, as St. Jerome relates,
in the apartment where she lay, a great harmony;
and also, as it was revealed to St. Bridget, a
great brightness was seen. By this harmony
and unusual splendor the holy Apostles perceived
that Mary was then departing, at which they
broke forth again in tears and prayers, and
raising their hands, with one voice exclaimed:
Oh, our mother, now thou art going to heaven,
and art leaving us, give us thy last benediction,
and do not forget us in our misery. And Mary,
turning her eyes around upon them all, as if
bidding them for the last time farewell, said:
Adieu, my children: I bless you; do not fear
that I shall forget you. And now death came,
not indeed clothed in mourning and sadness, as
it comes to others, but adorned with light and
joy. But why death, why death? Rather
should we say that divine love came to cut the
thread of that noble life. And as a lamp before
going out, her life, amid these last flickerings,
flashed forth more brightly, and then expired.
Thus, this beautiful soul, her Son inviting her to
follow him, wrapped in the flame of her charity

* App. S. gio. Dam. or. de Ass. V.

492 GLORIES OP MARY.

and in the midst of her amorous sighs, breathed
forth a greater sigh of love, expired and died*
and thus that great soul, that beautiful dove oi
our Lord, was released from the bonds of thig
life, and entered into the glory of the blessed,
where she sits, and will sit, as queen of paradise,
for all eternity.

Now Mary has left the earth, now she is in
heaven. From thence this kind mother looks
down upon us, who are still in this valley of
tears, compassionates us, and promises us her sup
port if we wish for it. Let us pray her always
that by the merits of her blessed death she may
obtain for us a happy death; and if it please
God, that she may obtain for us to die on a Sat
urday, which is dedicated to her honor, or on a
day of the Novena, or of the octave of some of
her feasts, as she has obtained for so many of
her servants, and especially for St. Stanislas
Kostka, for whom she obtained to die on the
day of her glorious Assumption, as Father Bar-
toli relates in his life of the saint.*

EXAMPLE.

4^

During the lifetime of this holy youth, who
was wholly devoted to the love of Mary, it
happened that on the first day of August, he
heard a sermon of Father Peter Canisius, in
which, preaching to the novices of his society,
he fervently urged upon all, the important ad
vice, to live every day as if it might be the last
of their life, after which they were to be pre-
* Lib. 1, cap. 1, 2.

GLOEIES OF MARY. 493

sented at the divine tribunal. The sermon being
finished, St. Stanislas told his companions that
this counsel had been for him especially the
voice of God, for that he was to die on that
very month. He said this either because Go<3
had expressly revealed it to him, or at least be
cause he gave him a certain internal presentiment
of what afterwards happened. Four days after^
the blessed youth went with Father Emmanuel
to St. Mary Major, and beginning to speak of
the approaching festival of the Assumption, he
said: "Father, I believe that on that day there is
seen in paradise a new paradise, the glory being
seen there of the mother of God crowned queen
of heaven, and seated so near the Lord above all
the choirs of angels. And if it is true that
every year, as I believe it to be certain, this fes
tival is renewed in heaven, I hope to see the
next one." The glorious martyr St. Lawrence
having fallen to the saint by lot as his monthly
patron, according to the custom of that society,
it is said that he wrote a letter to his mother
Mary, in which he prayed her to obtain for him
that he might be a spectator of this festival of
hers in paradise. On St. Lawrence s day he
received communion, and after [it supplicated
the saint to present that letter to the divine
mother,by interposing his intercession that the
most holy Mary might graciously hear his pray
er. At the close of this very day a fever came
upon him, and although it was very light, he,
however, from that hour esteemed it for certain

494 GLORIES OF MARY.

that he had obtained the favor asked for film,
namely, an early death. Indeed, on going to
bed he said joyfully, with a smiling countenance:
"From this bed I shall never arise." And
speaking to Father Cladius Aqua viva, he added:
"I believe that St. Lawrence has already obtain,
ed for me the grace from Mary that I should
be in heaven on the festival of her Assumption."
But no one thought much of these his words.
The vigil having arrived, his malady continued
to appear light, but the saint told a brother that
he should die the next night, and the brother an
swered: "Oh, brother, it would be a greater mira
cle to die of so slight an illness, than to be cured."
But, behold, after noon he fell into a deadly
swoon, and then came a cold sweat, and he en
tirely lost his strength. The superior hastened
to him, and Stanislas prayed him to order him
to be placed on the bare floor, that he might die
as a penitent, which was granted in order to
satisfy him, and he was laid on the floor on a
mattress. Then he made his confession, re
ceived the viaticum, not without the tears of all
present, for when the divine sacrament was
brought into the apartment, his eyes kindled
with celestial joy, and his whole countenance
was radiant with holy love, so that he seemed a
seraph. He also received extreme unction, and
meanwhile did nothing but now raise his eyes to
heaven, now look upon, kiss, and lovingly press
to his breast, an image of Mary. A father said
to him: "Of what use is it to wear that rosary

GLORIES OF MARY. 495

around your hand, if you cannot recite it?"
He answered: "It serves to console me, for it is
something belonging to my mother." "Oh,
how much more," said the Father, "will you be
consoled by seeing her, and kissing, in a short
time, her hands in heaven ! " Then the saint,
with his countenance all on fire, raised his hands,
thus to express his desire of finding himself
soon in her presence. Then his dear mother ap
peared to him, as he himself declared to those
around him, and soon after, at the dawa of day
on the fifteenth of August, he expired as a saint,
his eyes fixed on heaven, without a motion, so
that not until afterwards, when the image of
the most holy Virgin was presented, and he
made no movement towards it, it was perceived
that he had already gone to kiss in paradise the
feet of his beloved queen.

PKAYEB.

Oh, our most sweet Lady and Mother,
thou hast already left the earth, and hast
reached the kingdom, where thou sit test as
queen over all the choirs of angels, as the holy
Church sings: She was exalted about the choirs
of angels in the celestial kingdoms : "Exaltata
est super chores angelorum ad crelestia rcgna."
We know that we sinners are not worthy of
having thee with us in the valley of darkness.
But we know also, that thou in thy grandeur hast
never forgotten us in our misery, and by being
exalted to such glory hast never lost compassion

496 GLOEIES OP MAKY.

for us poor children of Adam, but rather that it
is increased in thee. From the high throne
then, where thou dost reign, turn, oh Mary,
even upon us, thy pitying eyes, and take com
passion upon us. Remember, too, that on leav
ing this world, thou didst promise not to forget
us. Look upon us and succor us. See in what
tempests and in how many dangers we are, and
always shall be, till the end of our life arrives.
By the merits of thy holy death, obtain for us
holy perseverance in the divine friendship, that
we may finally depart from this life in the grace
of God, and thus come one day to kiss thy feet
in paradise, and unite ourselves with the blessed
spirits in praising thee, and singing thy glories,
as thou dost merit. Amen.

DISCOURSE VIII.

ANOTHER DISCOURSE ON THE ASSUMPTION OF
MARY.

1st. Hoiv glorious was the triumph of Mary when she
ascended to heaven! zd. Hoiv exalted was the throne to
which she was raised in heaven !

IT would seem just that the holy Church, on
this day of the Assumption of Mary to heaven,
should rather invite us to weep than to rejoice,
since our sweet mother has quitted this earth,
and left us bereft of her sweet presence, as St.
Bernard says: It seems that we should rather
weep than exult: Tlangendum nobis, quam

GLORIES OF MARY.

plandendum inagis ease videtur."* But no, th
holy Church invites us to rejoice: "Let us all
rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival in
honor of the blessed Virgin Mary."f And just
ly, if we love this our mother, we ought to
congratulate ourselves more upon her glory than
upon our own particular consolation." What son
does not rejoice, although separated from hia
mother, if he knows that she is going to take
possession of a kingdom? Mary, to-day, is to
be crowned queen of heaven, and shall we not
make a feast and rejoice if we truly love her?
Let us all rejoice, let us rejoice: "Gaudeamus
omnes, et gaudeamus. " And that we may be
consoled the more by her exaltation, let us con
sider, in the first place, how glorious was the
triumph of Mary ascending to heaven; secondly,
how exalted was the throne to which she was
elevated in heaven.

First Point. After Jesus Christ our Saviour
had completed the work of our redemption by
his death, the angels earnestly desired to have
him with them in their heavenly country; hence
they were continually supplicating him, re
peating the words of David : "Arise, oh Lord,
into thy resting-place, thou and the ark which
thou hast sanctified."| Come, oh Lord, now
that thou hast redeemed men, come to thy king
dom with us, and bring with thee also the liv-

ing arkofthysanctification, namely, thy mother,
who was the ark sanctified by thee when thou
didst inhabit her womb. Thus St. Bernardino
puts it into the mouth of the angels to say:
Let thy most holy mother Mary also ascend
sanctified by thy conception.* At length, then,
our Lord wished to satisfy this desire of those
citizens of the heavenly country, by calling
Mary to paradise. But, if he wished that the
ark of the covenant should be conducted with
great pomp into the city of David And David
and all the house of Israel brought the ark of
the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting,
and with sound of trumpetf with far more
splendid and glorious pomp he ordained that
his mother should enter into heaven. The proph
et ISlias was carried up to heaven in a chariot of
fire, which, according to the interpreters, was
but a company of angels who raised him from the
earth. But, to conduct thee into heaven, oh
mother of God, as Rupert the Abbot says, a com
pany of angels was not enough, but the King of
heaven himself, with all his celestial court, came
to accompany thee.J

St. Bernardine of Sienna is of the same opin
ion, namely: that Jesus Christ, in order to hon-

or the triumph of Mary, came himself from
paradise to meet and accompany her.* And
precisely for this object it was, says St. Anselm,
that the Redeemer wished to ascend before his
mother, not only to prepare for her a throne in
that palace, but also to render her entrance into
heaven more glorious, accompanying her him
self, with all the blessed spirits.-f Hence St.
Peter Damian,coutemplating the splendor of this
assumption of Mary into heaven, says that we
shall find it more glorious than the ascension of
Jesus Christ; for the angels only came to meet
the Redeemer, but the blessed Virgin went to
glory met and accompanied by the Lord of
glory himself, and by all the blessed company of
saints and angels.J Hence Guerric the Abbot
represents the divine Word speaking thus: I
descended from heaven upon earth to give glory
to my Father ; but afterwards, to pay honor to
my mother, I ascended again into heaven, that
I might thus be enabled to come to meet her,
and accompany her by my presence to paradise.
Let us now consider how the Saviour really
did come from heaven to meet his mother, and

at the first interview said, to console her; "Arise,
make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one,
and come; for winter is now past . . . and gone."*
Come, my dear mother, my beautiful and pure
dove, leave that valley of tears where thou hast
suffered so much for my love; come from Liba-
nus, my spouse, come from Libanus, come, thou
shalt be crowned. f Come with soul and body,
to enjoy the reward of thy holy life. If thou hast
suffered much upon earth, far greater is the glory
that I have prepared for thee in heaven. Come
there to sit near me; come to receive the crown
that I will give thee as queen of the universe.
Now, behold, Mary leaves the earth, and
calling to mind the many graces she had there re
ceived from her Lord, she looks at it at the same
time both with affection and compassion, leav
ing in it so many poor children, in the midst of
so many miseries and dangers. And now Jesus
offers her his hand, and the blessed mother ris
es in the air and passes beyond the clouds and
spheres. Behold her now arrived at the gates
of heaven. When monarchs made their entrance
to take possession of their kingdom, they do not
pass through the gates of the city, for either
these are taken off entirely, or they pass over
them. Hence the angels, when Jesus Christ en
tered paradise, cried: "Lift up your gates, O ye
princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates;

and the King of glory shall enter in."* Thus,
also, now that Mary is going to take possession
of the kingdom of the heavens, the angels who
accompany her cry to the others who are within:
"Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lifted
up, O eternal gates, and the queen of glory shall
enter in."f

And now Mary enters into the blessed country.
But on her entrance, the celestial spirits seeing
her so beautiful and glorious, ask of those who
are without, as Origen describes it, and exclaim,
nil rejoicing in heaven in one (voice): Who is
this that cometh up from the desert, flowing
with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"^ And
who is this creature so beautiful, that comes
from the desert of the earth, a place so full of
thorns and tribulation? But this one comes so
pure and so rich in virtue, supported by her belov
ed Lord, who deigns to accompany her with so
great honor. Who is she ? The angels who ac
company her answer: This is the mother of our
King, she is our queen, and the blessed one
among women, full of grace, the saint of saints,
the beloved of God, the immaculate, the dove,
the most beautiful of all creatures. And then
all those blessed spirits begin to bless and praise
her, singing, with more reason than the Hebrews

said to Judith: "Thou art the glory of Jerns*
lem, thou art the joy of Israel, them art the hon
or of our people."* Ah! our Lady and our queen,
then thou art the glory of paradise, the joy of
our country, thou art the honor of us all; be ever
welcome, be ever blessed; behold thy kingdom,
behold us, we are all thy servants, ready for thy
commands.

Then all the saints who were at that time in
paradise came to welcome her and salute her as
their queen. All the holy virgins came: They

saw her, and declared her most blessed

and they praised her.f We, they said, oh most
blessed Lady, are also queens of this kingdom,
but thou art our queen; for thou wast the first
to give us the great example of consecrating
our virginity to God; we all bless and thank
thee for it. Then came the holy confessors to
salute her as their mistress, who had taught
them so many beautiful virtues by her holy life.
The holy martyrs came also to salute her as
their queen, because by her great constancy in
the sorrows of the passion of her Son, she had
taught them, and also obtained for them by
her merits, strength to give their life for the
faith. St. James came also, the only one of the
apostles who was then in paradise, to thank her
in the name of all the other apostles, for the
great comfort and support she had given them

while she was upon earth. The prophets next
came to salute her,and they said to her: Ah, Lady,
thou wast foreshadowed in our prophecies. The
holy patriarchs came and said to her: Oh Mary,
thou hast been our hope, so much and so long
sighed for by us. And among those came our
first parents, Adam and Eve, to thank her with
greater affection. Ah, beloved daughter, they
said to her, thou hast repaired the injury done
by us to the human race; thou hast obtained
for the world that blessing lost by us, on ac
count of our crime: by thee we are saved, and
for it be forever blessed.

Then came holy Simeon to kiss her feet, and
with joy reminded her of that day on which he
received from her hands the infant Jesus. St.
Zachary and St. Elizabeth also came, and thank
ed her again for that loving visit, that with so
much humility and charity she made them in
their dwelling, and through which they received
so many treasures of grace. St. John the Bap
tist came with greater affection to thank her for
having sanctified him by means of her voice.
But what could her parents, St. Joachim and St.
Anna, say to her, when they came to salute her?
Oh God! with what tenderness must they have
blessed her, saying: Ah! beloved daughter,
what happiness was ours in having such a child!
Ah! be thou our queen now, because thou art
the mother of our God; as such we salute thee
and adore thee. But who can comprehend the
affection with which her dear spouse St. Joseph

504 GLORIES OF MARY.

came to salute her ? "Who can describe the joy
that the holy patriarch experienced at seeing hid
spouse arrive in heaven with so much triumph,
made queen of all paradise? With what lender*
ness did he say to her: Ah! my Lady and spouse^
how shall I ever be able to thank our God as I
ought for having made me thy spouse, thou
who art his true mother? Through thee I merited
on earth to attend upon the childhood of the
incarnate Word, to bear him so often in my
arms, and receive from him so many special
favors. Blessed be the moments that I spent
in life serving Jesus and thee, my holy spouse.
Behold our Jesus; let us console ourselves that
now he is no more lying in a stable upon hay,
as we saw him at his birth in Bethlehem; he does
not now live poor and despised in a shop, as
once he lived with us in Nazareth; he is not now
nailed to a shameful cross, as when he died for the
salvation of the world in Jerusalem; but he sits
at the right hand of the Father, as king and
Lord of heaven and of earth. And now, oh my
queen, we shall never more depart from his
holy feet, where we shall bless and love him
eternally.

Then all the angels came to salute her, and she,
the great queen, thanked all for the assistance
they had given her on earth, especially thanking
the Archangel St. Gabriel, who was the happy
ambassador of all her glories, when he came to
announce to her that she was to be made moth
er of God. Then the humble and holy Vir*

GLORIES OF MARY. 505

gin, kneeling, adores the divine majesty, and
wholly lost in the consciousness of her nothing
ness, thanks him for all the graces bestowed upon
her solely by his goodness, and especially
for having made her mother of the eternal
Word. Let those who can, comprehend with
what love the most holy Trinity blessed her.
Let them comprehend what a welcome the
eternal Father gave to his daughter, the Son to
his mother, the Holy Spirit to his spouse. The
Father crowns her by sharing with her his pow
er, the Son his wisdom, the Holy spirit his love.
And all the three divine persons establishing
her throne at the right hand of Jesus, declare
her universal queen of heaven and of earth, and
command angels and all other creatures to rec
ognize her for their queen, and as queen to
serve and obey her. And here we pass on to
the consideration of how exalted was this throne
to which Mary was elevated in heaven.

Second Point. If the human mind, says St.
Bernard, cannot attain to comprehend the im
mense glory which God has prepared in heaven
for those who have loved him on earth, as the
apostle declares, who will ever attain to com
prehend what he has prepared for her who bore
him? "Quid praeparavit gignenti se"? What
glory did he prepare for his beloved mother, he
who on earth loved her more than all men; who,
even from the first moment of her creation, lov
ed her more than all men and angels united!
Justly, then, does the holy Church sinjy that

506 GLORIES OF MARY.

Mary having loved God more than all the angels,
she has been exalted above all the angels, in hea
ven.* Yes, she was exalted, says William the
Abbot, above the angels, so that she sees no one
above her but her Son, who is the only begot
ten Son of God.f

Hence the learned Gerson asserts, that all the
orders of angels and of saints being divided
into three hierarchies, as the angelic Doctor de-
clares,J and St. Dionysius also, Mary consti
tutes in heaven a hierarchy of herself, the most
sublime of all, and next to God. And as the mis
tress, St. Antoninus adds, is incomparably above
her servants, so is the glory of Mary incompara
bly greater than that of the an gels. || And in or
der to understand this, it is enough to know what
David said, that this queen was seated at the
right hand of the Son: The queen stood on thy
right hand: "Astitit regina a dextris tuis. ^
Which St. Athanasius exactly explained by say
ing: Mary is placed at the right hand of God.**

The works of Mary, as St. ildephonsus says,
certainly incomparably surpassed in merit the
works of all the saints, and therefore the reward
and the glory she merited cannot be conceived. ff

And if it is certain that God rewards according
to merit, as the apostle says, "Who will render
to every man according to his works; * it is also
certain, says St. Thomas, that the Virgin who
excelled in merit all, both men and angels, must
have heen exalted above all the celestial orders. f
In fine, adds St. Bernard, let us measure the sin*
gular grace that she acquired on earth, and then
we may measure the singular glory that she has
obtained in heaven. J

The glory of Mary, remarks a. learned author,
which was a full glory, a complete glory, is dif
ferent from that which the other saints have in
heaven. It is true that in heaven all the blessed
enjoy a perfect peace and full content; yet it
will always be true that no one of them enjoys
that glory that he could have merited if he had
loved and served God with greater fidelity.
Hence, although the saints in heaven desire noth
ing more than what they possess, yet, in fact,
there is something they could yet desire. It is
also true that the sins which they have commit
ted, and the time which they have lost, do not
bring suffering; but it cannot be denied that the
most good done in life, innocence preserved and
time well employed, give the greatest content.

Mary in heaven desires nothing, and has nothing
to desire. Who of the saints in paradise, says
St. Augustine, if asked whether he has committed
eins, can answer no, except Mary ?* It is certain,
as the holy Council of Trent has defined,f that
Mary never committed any sin, not even the
least; not only she has never lost divine grace
never bedimmed it, but she has never kept it
unemployed; she never did an action that was
not meritorius; she never said a word, or had a
thought, or drew a breath, that was not directed
to the greatest glory of God; in a word, she never
relaxed or stopped one moment in her onward
course to God; she never lost anything through
negligence, for she always corresponded with
grace with all her power, and loved God as much
as she could love him. Oh Lord, she now says
to him in heaven, if I have not loved thee as
much as thou dost merit, at least I have loved
thee as much as I could.

The graces of the saints were different in each,
as St. Paul said: There are diversities of graces:
"Divisiones gratiarum sunt." So that each of
them corresponding with the grace received, has
rendered himself excellent in some virtue; one
in saving souls, one in leading a life of penance,
one in suffering torments, one in contemplation;
hence the holy Church, when celebrating their
festivals, says of each: And there was not found
the like to him: "Non est inventus similis illi."
And as in their merits, so are they in heaven
* De Nat et Qrat. 1. 7, c. 36. t Sesa. 6, Can. 13.

GLORIES OF MARY. 509

different in glory: for star differetb from stai
in glory: " Stella enim a Stella differt."* The
Apostles differ from the martyrs, confessors
from virgins, the innocents from penitents. The
holy Virgin being full of all graces, excelled
each saint in every kind of virtue; she was the
apostle of the apostles; she was queen of the
martyrs, for she suffered more than all of them;
she was the standard-bearer of the virgins, the
model of spouses; she united in herself a perfect
innocence with a perfect mortification; in a
word, she united in her heart all the most heroic
virtues which any saint has ever practised.
Hence it was said of her: "The queen stood on
thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded
with variety ;"f for all the graces, privileges,
and merits of the other saints were found united
in Mary, as the Abbot of Celles says: The
prerogatives of all the saints, oh Virgin, thou
hast united in thyself.J

Thus as the splendor of the sun exceeds the
splendor of all stars united, so, says St. Basil,
the glory of the divine mother exceeds that of
all the blessed. And St. Peter Damian adds,
that as the light of the stars and of the moon dis
appears as if they were not, at the rising of the

arm, thus Mary so far obscures in glory the splen
dor of men and angels, that as it were, these do
pA appear in heaven.* Whence St. Bernardino of
Sienna agrees with St. Bernard in asserting that
the blessed participate in part in the divine
glory, but that the Virgin, in a certain manner,
has been so enriched with it, that it seems no
creature could be more united with God than is
Mary.f Which is confirmed by the blessed Al-
bertus Magnus, when he says that our queen con
templates God very near incomparably more BO
than all the other celestial spirits.! And the
above-named St. Bernardine says, moreover,
that as the other planets are illuminated by the
sun, so all the blessed receive greater light and
joy from the sight of Mary. And in another
place he likewise asserts, that the mother of
God, ascending to heaven, increased the joy of
all its inhabitants.! Hence St. Peter Damian
says,that the blessed have no greater glory in
heaven, after God, than to enjoy the presence of

that most beautiful queen: Sim? ma gloria est
post Deura tevidere."* And St. Bonaventure:
Next to God, our greatest glory and our greatest
joy is from Mary.f

Let us rejoice, then, with Mary, in the exalted
throne to which God has elevated her in heaven.
And let us rejoice also for our own sake, since if
our mother has ceased to be present with us, by
ascending in glory to heaven, she has not
ceased to be present with us in her affection.
Nay, being there nearer and more united to God,
fihe better knows our miseries, and therefore
pities them more, and is better able to relieve us.
And wilt thou, as St. Peter Damian asks, oh
blessed Virgin, because tbou hast been so exalt
ed in heaven, be forgetful of us miserable
creatures ?J No, may God preserve us from
the thought; a heart so merciful cannot but pity
our miseries which are so great. If the pity
of Mary for us was so great when she lived upon
earth, much greater, says St. Bonaventure, is it
in heaven, where she reigns.]

Meanwhile let us dedicate ourselves to the
service of this queen, to honor and love her as
much as we can; for she is not, as Richard of St.

Lawrence says, like other rulers, who oppress
their vassals with burdens and taxes, but our
queen enriches her servants with graces, merits,
and rewards.* And let us pray her with Guerric
the Abbot: Oh mother of mercy, thou who sit-
test so near to God, queen of the world, upon a
throne so sublime, satiate thyself with the glory
of thy Jesus, and send to us thy servants the
fragments that are left. Thou dost now enjoy
the banquet of the Lord; we who are still on
earth, like the dogs under the table, ask thy
pity.f

EXAMPLE.

Father Silvanus Razzi relates, J that a devout
ecclesiastic who had a tender love for our Queen
Mary, had heard her beauty so much extolled
that he ardently desired once to see his Lady,
and with humble prayers asked this favor. The
kind mother sent an angel to tell him that she
would gratify him by allowing him to see her,
but on this condition, namely, that after seeing
her he should become blind. He accepted the
condition. On a certain day, behold the blessed
Virgin appeared to him, and that he might not
become wholly blind, he at first wished to look

at her with one eye only ; but afterwards be
coming enamored of the great beauty ot Mary,
he wished to contemplate her with both, and
then the mother of God disappeared. Deeply
grieved at having lost the presence of his queen,
he could not cease weeping; not indeed for his
lost eye, but that he had not seen her with both.
Then he began to supplicate her anew, that she
would again appear to him, and he would be
willing to lose the other eye and become entire
ly blind. "Happy and satisfied," oli my Lady,
he said, "I will remain, if I become wholly
blind for so good a cause, which will leave me
more enamored of thee, and of thy beauty."
Again Mary was willing to satisfy him, and
again she consoled him with her presence; but
because this loving queen can never injure any
one, when she appeared to him the second time,
not only she did not take from him the other
eye, but she even restored to him the one he
had lost.

PKAYER.

Oh great, excellent, and most glorious Lady,
prostrate at the foot of thy throne, we adore
thee from this valley of tears. We rejoice at
the immense glory with which our Lord has en
riched thee. Now that thou art really queen
of heaven and of earth, ah, do not forget us thy
poor servants. Do not disdain from the lofty
throne, from which thou dost reign, to turn thy
pitying eyes towards us miserable sinners. Ag

514 GLORIES OF MARY.

thou art so near the source of graces, thou art
able so much the more to obtain them for us.
In heaven thou seest more plainly our miseries,
and therefore thou must pity and relieve us the
more. Make ua on earth thy faithful servants,
that we may thus go to bless thee in paradise.
On this day, when thou hast been made queen
of the universe, we also consecrate oarselves to
thy service. In thy great joy console us also
this day, by accepting us for thy vassals.
Thou, then, art our mother. Ah, most sweet
mother! most amiable mother! thy altars are
surrounded by many people wfeo ask of thee,
one to be healed of some malady, another to be
relieved in his necessities, one prays thee for a
good harvest, and another success in some
litigation. We ask of thee graces more pleas
ing to thy heart. Obtain for us that we may be
humble, detached from earth, resigned to the
divine will. Obtain for us the holy love of God,
a good death, and paradise. Oh Lady, change
us from sinners to saints. Perform this miracle
that will redound more to thy honor, than if
thou didst restore sight to a thousand blind
persons, or raise a thousand from the dead.
Thou art so powerful with God, it is enough to
say that thou art his mother, his most beloved,
full of his grace; what can he then deny thee?
Oh most lovely queen, we do not pretend to
behold thee on the earth, but we desire to go
and see thee in paradise : thou must obtain this
for us. Thus we certainly hope. Amen, amen.

LORIES OF MARY. 515

DISCOURSE IX.

ON THE DOLORS OF MARY.

Mary teas queen of martyrs, because Tier martyrdom v>a&
longer and greater than that of all the martyrs.

WHO can have a heart so hard that it will not
melt on hearing of a most lamentable event
which once happened in the world? There was
a noble and holy mother who had but one only
Son; and he was the most amiable that could be
imagined, innocent, virtuous, beautiful, and
most loving towards his mother; so much so,
that he never had caused her the least displeas
ure, but always had showed her all respect,
obedience, and affection. Hence the mother
had placed on this Son all her earthly affections.
Now what happened? It happened that this Son
through envy, was falsely accused by his enemies
and the judge, although he knew and confessed
his innocence, yet, that he might not offend his
enemies, condemned him to an infamous death,
precisely as they had requested him to do.
And this poor mother h ad to suffer the affliction of
seeing that amiable and beloved Son so unjustly
taken from her, in the flower of his age, by a bar
barous death; for he was made to die in torment,
drained of his blood before her own eyes in a
public place, upon an infamous gibbet. Devout

516 GLORIES OF MARY.

Bouls, what do you say? Is this case and this un
happy mother worthy of compassion? Already
you know of whom I speak. This Son so cruelly
glain was our loving Redeemer, Jesus, and his
mother was the blessed Virgin Mary, who, for
love of us, was willing to see him offered up to
the divine justice by the barbarity of men. This
great pain, then, which Mary suffered for us
a pain which was more than a thousand deaths
merits our compassion and gratitude. And if
we can return nothing else for so much love, at
least let us for a little time to-day stop to con
sider the severity of the suffering by which Mary
became queen of martyrs; for her great martyr
dom exceeded in suffering that of all the martyrs,
being, in the first place the longest martyrdom;
and in the second place, the greatest martyrdom.
First Point As Jesus is called King of sor
rows and King of martyrs, because he suffered in
his life more than all the other martyrs, so is also
Mary called, with reason, queen of the martyrs,
having merited this title by suffering the greatest
martyrdom that could be suffered, next to that of
her Son. Hence she was justly named by Richard
of St. Laurence the martyr of martyrs: "Maryyr
martyrum." And to her may be applied what
Isaias said: He will crown tliee with the crown of
tribulation: "Coronans coronabit tetribulatione.
For that suffering itself which exceeded the suf
fering of all the other martyrs united, was the

Cap- xxfi. 18.

GLORIES OF MARY. 517

erown by which she was shown to be the queen of
martyrs. That Mary was a true martyr cannot
be doubted, as is proved by the Carthusian,
Pelbart, Catharinus, and others; for it is an
established opinion that suffering sufficient to
cause death, constitutes martyrdom, although
death may not then take place. St. J ohn the
Evangelist is revered as a martyr, although he
did not die in the caldron of boiling oil, but
came out more sound than he went in: "Vege-
tior exiverit quam intraverit."* It is sufficient
to procure the glory of martyrdom, says St.
Thomas, that any one should be obedient even
to offer himself to death. f Mary was a martyr,
says St. Bernard, not by the sword of the exe
cutioner, but by the bitter sorrow of her heart. J
If her body was not wounded by the hand of the
executioner, yet her blessed heart was pierced by
grief at the passion of her Son; a grief sufficient
to cause her not only one, but a thousand deaths.
And from this we shall see that Mary was not
only a true martyr, but that her martyrdom sur
passed that of all the oth.er martyrs, for it was
a longer martyrdom, and, if I may thus express
it, all her life was a long death.

The passion of Jesus commenced with his
birth, as St. Bernard says ; and Mary also, in

all things like unto her Son, suffered her martyr,
dom through her whole life. The name ot
Mary, among its other significations, as the
blessed Albertus Magnus affirms, signifies a
bitter sea: "Mare amarurn." Wherefore to her
is applied the passage of Jeremias: Great as the
sea is thy destruction : "Magna est enim velut
mare contritio tua."f For as the sea is all salt
and bitter, thus the life of Mary was always full
of bitterness, at the sight of the passion of the
Redeemer, which was ever present to her. It
cannot be doubted that being more enlightened
by the Holy Spirit than all the prophets, she
better comprehended than they the predictions
concerning the Messias, which they recorded in
their holy Scriptures. Precisely this the angel
revealed to St. Bridget.J Whence, as the
same angel declared, the Virgin knowing how
much the incarnate Word was to suffer for the
salvation of men, even before she became his
mother, and compassionating this innocent
Saviour, who was to be so cruelly put to death
for crimes not his own, she commenced, from
that time, her great martyrdom.

Her grief afterwards increased immeasurably
when she was made mother of this Saviour. So

Ibat at the painful thought of all the sufferings
which her poor Son was to endure, she indeed ex
perienced, says Rupert the Abbot, a long mar
tyrdom a martyrdom continued through her
whole life.* And exactly this was signified by
the vision which St. Bridget had at Rome, in
the church of St. Mary Major, where the blessed
Virgin appeared to her with St. Simeon, and an
angel, having a sword which was very long and
red with blood; by which was prefigured the
long and bitter grief that pierced the heart of
Mary during her whole life.f Whence the
above-named Rupert puts into the mouth of
Mary the following words: Oh redeemed souls
and my beloved children, do not pity me only
for that hour in which I saw my dear Jesus
dying in my presence, for the sword of sorrow,
predicted to me by Simeon, pierced my soul dur
ing my whole life; when I was giving suck to
my Son, when I was warming him in my arms,
I already saw the bitter death that awaited him;
consider then what long and cruel sorrows I
must have endured. \

Wherefore Mary might truly say in the words
of David: My life is wasted with grief and my

years in sighs.* My sorrow is continually be
fore me: "Dolor meus in conspectu nieo semper. "f
My life was wholly passed in grief and tears;
for my grief, which was compassion for my be-
loved Son, never departed from before my eyes,
seeing, as I did, continually the sufferings and
death that he was one day to endure. The
divine mother herself revealed to St. Bridget,
that even after the death- and ascension of her
Son into heaven, the memory of his passion,
whether she ate or worked, wa" deeply impress
ed and ever recent in her ter A er heart. J Tau-
lerus therefore says, that M ry passed her whole
life in perpetual sorrow; f A her heart was al
ways occupied with thou hts of sadness and of
suffering.

So that time, which usually mitigates the
Borrows of the afflicted, did not relieve Mary;
nay, time itself increased her sorrow, for as
Jesus increased in years, on the one hand, he
continually showed himself more lovely and
amiable; and on the other, the time of his death
was ever drawing nearer, and grief at having to
lose him on this earth, continually increased in
the heart of Mary. As the rose grows up among
thorns, said the angel to St. Bridget, so the moth-

er of God advanced in years in the midst of
sufferings; and as the thorns increase with the
growth of the rose, thus this rose selected by
the Lord, Mary, as she increased in age, was so
much the more pierced by the thorns of ber
dolors.* Having considered the length of this
suffering, let us now pass on to the second point,
namely, the consideration of its greatness.

Point Second. Ah, Mary was not only queen
of the martyrs, because ber martyrdom was lon
ger than that of all others, bnt also because it
was the greatest of all. But who can measure
its greatness? Jeremias appears to be unable
to find any one with whom he may compare this
mother of sorrows, when considering her great
suffering at the death of her Son. "To what
shall I compare thee, or to what shall I liken
thee, oh daughter of Jerusalem; for great as the
ffeaisthy destruction; who shall heal thee?"f
Wherefore Cardinal Hugo, commenting on these
words, says: Oh blessed Virgin, as the bitterness
of the sea exceeds all other bitterness, so thy
grief surpasses all other grief s.J Hence St. Au-
selm affirms, that if God, by a special miracle,
had not preserved the life of Mary, her grief

would have been sufficient to cause her death at
each moment of her life.* And St. Bernardino
of Sienna even says, that the grief of Mary was
so great, that if it were divided among all men,
it would be enough to cause their immediate
death.f

But let us consider the reasons why the mar
tyrdom of Mary was greater than that of all the
martyrs. In the first place, it must be remem
bered that the martyrs suffered their martyrdom
in the body, by means of fire or steel; Mary
suffered martyrdom in her soul; as St. Simeon
had before prophesied: and thy own soul a
sword shall pierce: "Et tuam ipisus animain per-
transibit gladius:"J as if the holy old man had
said to her: Oh holy Virgin, the bodies of the
other martyrs will be torn with iron, but thou
wilt be pierced and martyred in thy soul, by the
passion of thy own Son. Now, as the soul is
more noble than the body, so much greater was
the suffering of Mary than that of all the mar
tyrs; as Jesus Christ himself said to St. Cathar
ine of Sienna: There is no comparison between
the sufferings of the soul and the body; * Inter
dolorem animse et corporis nulla est compara-
tio." Whence the holy Abbot Arnold Carno-

teasis says, that whoever bad been present on
Calvary at the great sacrifice of the immaculate
Lamb, when he was dying on the cross, would
have there beheld two great altars, one in the
body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary:
for there, at the same time that the Son sacri
ficed his body in death, Mary sacrificed her soul
in compassion.*

Moreover, while the other martyrs, St. An
toninus says, f suffered by sacrificing their own
lives, the blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing
the life of her Son, whom she loved far more
than her own life ; so that she not only suffered
in spirit all that her Son suffered in body, but,
moreover, the sight of the sufferings of her Son
brought more grief to her heart than if she had
endured them all in her own person. There can
be BO doubt that Mary suffered in her heart all
the tortures by which she saw her beloved Jesus
tormented. Every one knows that the sufferings
of children are also the sufferings of theirmoth-
ers, when they are the witnesses of them. St. Au
gustine, considering the anguish that the mother
of the Macchabees experienced in witnessing the
tortures which her sons endured, says: "She suf
fered in them all, because she loved them all, and
endured with her eyes what they all endured in
the flesh."! Thus also was it with Mary ; all those

Bcourgings, torments, thorns, nails, and the c; oss,
which tortured the innocent flesh of Jesus, enter-
ed at the same time into the heart of Mary to com
plete her martyrdom. He in the flesh, she in the
heart suffered, writes St., Amadeus: u llle carne,illa
corde passa est."* So that as St. Lawrence Jus
tinian says, the heart of Mary became as it were, a
mirror of the agonies of her Son, in which were
Been the spitting, the scourging, the wounds, and
all that Jesus suffered. f And St. Bonaventure re
marks, that these wounds which were scattered
all over the body of Jesus, were all united in one
heart of Mary. J

The Virgin, then through compassion for her
Son, was scourged, crowned with thorns, in
sulted, and nailed to the cross. Whence the
same saint considering Mary on Mt. Calvary,
where she was present with her dying Son,
asks of her: Oh Lady, tell me where you then
stood ? Perhaps only at the foot of the cross !
Might I not rather say: thou wast on the cross
itself crucified with thy Son ? And Richard,
remarking on the words of the Redeemer, which
he spoke by the mouth of Isaias : " I have trod
den the wine-press alone, and of the Gentiles

there is not a man with me,"* adds: Oh Lord,
thou dost rightly say that in the work of human
redemption thou didst suffer alone, and there was
no man that could pity thee sufficiently ; but
there was a woman with thee, thy own mother,
who suffered in her heart whatever thou didst
suffer in thy body.f

But all this is saying only too little of the
sorrows of Mary; for, as I have before said, she
suffered more in seeing her beloved Jesus suffer,
than if in her own person she had endured all
the tortures and the death of her Son. Erasmus
has written, speaking of parents, generally, that
they feel the sufferings of their children more
than their own.J But this is not always true.
It was no doubt true of Mary, for she certainly
loved her Son and his life far more than herself,
and a thousand lives of her own. Therefore St.
Amadeus well declares, that the afflicted mother,
at the sorrowful sight of the agony of her be
loved Jesus, suffered much more than if she
herself had endured his whole passion. The
reason is plain, since, as St. Bernard says: The
soul is more where it loves, than where it lives:

"Anima magis est ubi amat, quara ubi aniinat."
And the Saviour himself had before said, that
eur heart is where our treasure is.* If Mary,
then, through love, lived more in her Son than
in herself, a much greater grief did she suffer
at the death of her Son, than if the most cruel
death in the world had been inflicted on her.

And here is to be considered the other circum
stance that rendered the martyrdom of Mary-
far greater than the sufferings of all the mar
tyrs, for in the passion of Jesus she suffered
much, and she suffered without alleviation.
The martyrs suffered under the torments which
their tyrants inflicted upon them, but love to
Jesus rendered their pains sweet and delightful.
A St. Vincent suffered in his martyrdom; he
was tortured on the rack, torn with hooks,
burnt with red-hot iron plates; but St. Augus
tine says: One seemed to suffer, and another to
speak: "Alius videbatur pati, alias loqui." The
saint addressed the tyrant with such power, and
with such contempt of his torments, that it
seemed as if one Vincent suffered and another
Vincent spoke, so greatly did his God, with the
sweetness of his love, comfort him in the midst
of his sufferings. A St. Boniface suffered; his
body was torn with irons, sharp-pointed reeds
were thrust between his nails and flesh, melted
lead was poured into his mouth, and at the same
time he could not often enough repeat: I give
thanks to thee, oh Jesus Christ: "Gratias tibi
ago, Domine Jesu Christe." A St. Mark and a

* Ubi thesaurus vester est, ibi et cor vestrum erit, Luc. xii. 34.

6LOEIB8 OF MARY. 527

St. Marcellinus suffered; they were bound to a
stake, their feet pierced by nails, and the tyrant
appealed to them, saying: " Miserable beings,
look at your condition, and save yourselves
from these torments." And they answered:
"What torments, what pain do you speak of?
We have never feasted with more joy than now,
when we are suffering with pleasure for the
love of Jesus Christ."* A St. Lawrence
suffered, but while he was burning on the grid
iron, the interior flames of love, as St. Leo says,
was more powerful to cheer his soul, than the
flames without were to torture his body.f
Hence love made him so strong, that he even
braved the tyrant by saying to him: Tyrant, if
you wish to feed on ray flesh, a part is sufficient
ly cooked, turn and eat: * Assatum est jam,
versa et manduca." But in such torture and
lingering death, how could the saint thus
exult? Ah, St. Augustine answers, because,
intoxicated with the wine of divine love, he felt
neither torments nor death. {

For the holy martyrs, the more they loved
Jesus, the less they felt torments and death,
and the sight alone of the sufferings of a cruci
fied God was sufficient to console them. But
was not our afflicted mother, also, thus consoled
by love for her Son, and the sight of his suffer
ings? No, for this very Son who suffered, was

the whole cause of her grief; and the love shi
bore him was her only, and too cruel executionerj
for the whole martyrdom of Mary consisted in
seeing and pitying her innocent and beloved Son s
who suffered so much. Therefore, the more
ehe loved him, the more bitter and inconsolable
was her sorrow. "Great as the sea is thy de
struction, who shall heal thee?"* Ah, queen of
Leaven, love hath alleviated the sufferings of
other martyrs, and has healed their wounds; but
who has ever soothed thy great sorrow? Who
has ever healed the cruel wounds of thy heart?
Who will heal thee? "Quis medebitur tui ?" if
that same Son, who could give thee consolation,
was by his sufferings the sole cause of thy sor
rows, and the love that thou didst bear him,
caused all thy martyrdom? Therefore, whilst the
other martyrs, as Diez remarks, are all represent
ed with the instrument of their passion St.
Paul with the sword, St Andrew with the cross,
St. Lawrene with the gridiron Mary is repre
sented with her dead Son in her arms, because
Jesus himself alone was the instrument of her
martyrdom^ by reason of the love which she bore
him. In a few words St. Bernard confirms all I
have said: With the other martyrs their great
love soothed the anguish of their martyrdom;
but the more the blessed Virgin loved, go much
the more she suffered, and so much more cruel
was her martyrdom.f

* Magna eet velnt mare contritio tua; quis medebitur tni?

t In aliis martyribua magaitucLo amoris dolorem. lenivii passion!*;

GLORIES OF MARY. 529

It is certain that the greater is our love for a
thing, the greater pain we feel in losing it. The
loss of a brother certainly afflicts us more than
the loss of a beast of burden ; and the death of
a son, more than that of a friend. Now Cor
nelius a Lapide says, that to comprehend how
great was the grief of Mary at the death of her
Son, we should comprehend how great was the
love she bore him.* But who can measure thafc
love? The blessed Amadeus says, that in the
heart of Mary two kinds of love to her Jesus were
united: the supernatural love with which she
loved him as her God, and the natural love with
which she loved him as her son;f so that, of these
two loves, one only \vas formed, but a love so im
mense that William of Paris even said, that the
blessed Virgin loved Jesus to such a degree that
a pure creature could not love him more. J And
Richard of St. Laurence says, as there was no
love like her love, so there was no grief like her
grief. If, therefore, the love of Mary for her
SOD was immense, immense, also, must have been
her grief in losing him by death. Where love

Let us imagine, then, that the divine mother,
standing near her Son dying upon the cross,
and justly applying to herself the words of Jere-
mias, says to us: "Oh, all ye that pass by the
way attend, and see if there be any sorrow like
to my sorrow."* Oh ye that are passing your
lives upon this earth, and have no pity for me,
stop a while to look upon me, now that I be
hold that beloved Son dying before my eyes:
and then see if among all who are afflicted and
tormented, there be sorrow like to my sorrow."
No, answers St. Bonaventure, there can be found
no sorrow, oh afflicted mother, more bitter than
thine, for no son can be found more dear than
thine f Ah, there has never been in the world,
says St. Lawrence Justinian, a son more worthy
of love than Jesus, nor a mother who loved her
son more than Mary; if, then, there has never
been in the world a love like the love of Mary,
how can there be a grief like the grief of
Mary?J

Therefore, St. Ildephonsus did not hesitate to
affirm, that it was little to say that the sufferings

of the Virgin exceeded all the torments of the
martyrs, even were they united together.* And
St. Anselm adds, that the most cruel tortures in
flicted upon the holy martyrs were light or noth
ing, in comparison with the martyrdom of
Mary.f St. Basil likewise writes, that as the
sun surpasses in splendor all the other planets,
so Mary in her sufferings exceeded the sufferings
of all the other martyrs.J A certain learned
author concludes with an admirable sentiment,
saying, that so great was the sorrow which this
tender mother suffered in the passion of Jesus,
that she alone could worthily compassionate the
death of a God made man.

But St. Bonaventura, addressing the blessed
Virgin, says: Oh Lady, why hast thou wished to
go and sacrifice thyself also on Calvary? Was
not a crucified God sufficient to redeem us, that
thou his mother wouldst be crucified also ? J
Indeed, the death of Jesus was more than enough
to save the world, and also an infinity of worlds;
but this good mother wished, for the love she
bore us, likewise to aid the cause of our salvation

with the merits of the sorrows which she offered
for us on Calvary. And, therefore, says the
blessed Albertus Magnus, as we are indebted to
Jesus for what he suffered for love of us, we are
also to Mary for the martyrdom which she, in
the death of her Son, voluntarily suffered for our
salvation.* I have added voluntarily, since, as
the angel revealed to St. Bridget, this our so
merciful and kind mother was willing to suffef
any pain, rather than to see souls unredeemed or
left in their former perdiiion.f It may be said
that this was the only consolation of Mary in the
midst of her great sorrow at the passion of her
Son, to see the lost world redeemed by his death,
and men, who were his enemies, reconciled with
God. Grieving, she rejoiced, says Simon da
Cassia, because the sacrifice was offered for the
redemption of all, by which wrath was appeas-
ed.J

Such love as that of Mary merits our grati
tude, and let us show our gratitude by meditating
upon and compassionating her sorrows. But of
this she complained to St. Bridget, that very
few pitied her, and most lived forgetful of her
Borrows. "I look around upon all who are in
the world, if perchance there may be any to pity

me, and meditate upon my sorrows, and truly I
find very few. Therefore, my daughter, though
I am forgotten by many, at least do not thou
forget me; behold my anguish, and imitate, aa
far as thou canst, my grief."* In order to un
derstand how much the Virgin is pleased by our
remembrance of her dolors, it is sufficient to re
late, that in the year 1239, she appeared to
seven of her servants, who then became the
founders of the order of the Servants of Mary,
with a black garment in her hand, and told them
that if they wished to please her, they should
often meditate upon her dolors; and therefore
fibe wished, in memory of them, that they
would hereafter wear that garment of mourning.f
And Jesus Christ himself revealed to the blessed
Veronica Binasco, that he takes more pleasure,
as it were, in seeing his mother compassionated
than himself; for thus he addressed her: "My
daughter, the tears shed for ray passion are dear
to me; but loving with so great love my mother
Mary, the meditation of the dolors which she
suffered at my death is more dear to me." J

Wherefore the graces are very great which
Jesus promises to those who are devoted to the
dolors of Mary. Pelbart relates, that it was

revealed to St. Elizabeth, that St. John the
Evangelist, after the blessed Virgin was assumed
into heaven, desired to see her again. This
favor was granted him; his dear mot her appear
ed to him, and Jesus Christ with her; and he
then heard Mary asking of her Son some pecu
liar grace for those who were devoted to her
dolors; and Jesus promised her for them the
four following special graces: 1st. That those
who invoke the divine mother by her sorrows,
before death will merit to obtain true repentance
of all their sins. 2d. That he will protect such
in their tribulations, especially at the hour of
death. 3d. That he willimpress upon them the
memory of his passion, and that they shall
have their reward for it in heaven. 4th. That
he will commit such devout servants to the
hands of Mary, that she may dispose of them
according to her pleasure, and obtain for them
all the graces she desires. In proof of this, let
us see in the following example how devotion to
the dolors of Mary may aid our eternal salva
tion.

EXAMPLE

We read in the revelations of St. Bridget,*
that there was once a lord as noble by birth
as he was low and sinful in his habits. He had
given himself by an express compact as a slave
to the devil, and had served him for sixty
years, leading such a life as may

* L. 6, c. 97.

GLOEIES OF MARY. 535

aasily be imagined, and never approaching the
sacraments. Now, this prince was about to die
and Jesus Christ, in his compassion, command
ed St. Bridget to tell his confessor to visit him,
and exhort him, to make his confession. The
confessor went, and the sick man told him that
he had no need of a confessor, for that he had
often made his confession. The confessor
visited him a second time, and that poor slave
of hell persevered in his obstinate determination
not to make his confession. Jesus again
directed the saint to tell the confessor to go to
him again. He obeyed, and this third time
related to him the revelation made to the saint,
and that he had returned so many times because
the Lord, who desired to show him mercy, had
directed him to do so. On hearing this the
dying man was moved, and began to weep.
But how, he exclaimed, can I be pardoned,
when for sixty years I have served the devil,
made myself his slave, and have laden my soul
with innumerable sins?" "Son," answered the
father, encouraging him, "do not doubt: if you
repent of them, in the name of God I promise you
pardon / Then beginning to gain confidence,
he said to the confessor: "Father, I believed
myself lost, and despaired of salvation ; but new
I feel a sorrow for my sins, which encourages
me to trust; and as God has not yet abandoned
me, I wish to make my confession." And in
fact on that day he made his confession four
times with great sorrow; the next day he re-

536 GLORIES OF MARY.

ceived communion, and on the sixth he dieu,
contrite and entirely resigned. After his death,
Jesus Christ further revealed to St. Bridget,
that this sinner wa saved, and was in purgatory,
and that he had been saved by the intercession
of the Virgin, his mother; for the deceased, al
though he had led so sinful a life, yet had al
ways preserved devotion to her dolors, when*
ever he remembered them he pitied her.

PRAYER.

Oh my afflicted mother! queen of martyrs
and of sorrows, thou hast shed so many tears
for thy Son, who died for my salvation, and
yet what will thy tears avail me, if I am lost?
By the merits, then, of thy dolors, obtain for
me a true sorrow for my sins, and a true amend
ment of life, with a perpetual and tender com
passion for the passion of Jesus and thy own
sufferings. And if Jesus and thou, being so in
nocent, have suffered so much for me, obtain for
me that I, who am deserving of hell, may also
suffer something for love of you. O Lady, I will
say to thee with St. Bonaventure, if I have
offended thee, wound my heart in punishment ;
if I have served thee, now I beg to be wounded
as a reward. It is a shameful thing to see our
Lord Jesus wounded, and thee wounded with
him, and I uninjured.* Finally, oh my mother,

by the grief thou didst experience on seeing thy
Son before thy eyes bow his head and expire
upon the cross, I entreat of thee to obtain for
ine a good death. Ah, do not cease, oh advo
cate of sinn. rs, to assist my afflicted and strug
gling soul in that great passage that it has to
make into eternity. And, because at that time
it may easily be the case that I shall have lost
the use of speech with which to invoke thy
name, and that of Jesus, who are all my hope,
therefore I now invoke thy Son and thee to suc
cor me at that last moment, and I say: Jesus
nd Mary, to you I commend my soul. Amen.

REFLECTIONS

OK EACH OF THE SEVEN DOLORS OF MARY IN
PARTICULAR.

ON THE FIRST DOLOR.
OF ST. SIMEON S PROPHECY.

IN this valley of tears, every man is born to
weep, and every one must suffer those afflictions
that daily befall him. But how much more mis
erable would life be, if every one knew also the
future evils which are to afflict him! Too un
happy would he be, says Seneca, whose fate was
such.* The Lord exercises his compassion
towards us, namely, that he does not make

known to us the crosses that await ns; that if
we are to suffer them, at least we may suffer
them only once. But he did not exercise this
compassion with Mary, who, because God wish
ed her to be the queen of dolors, and in all
things like his Son, and to see always before her
eyes, and to suffer continually all the sorrows
that awaited her; and those were the sufferings
of the passion and death of her beloved Jesus.
For St. Simeon in the temple, after having re
ceived the divine child in his arms, predicted to
her that this child was to be the mark for all the
opposition and persecution of men; "Set for a
sign which shall be contradicted;" and that
therefore the sword of sorrow should pierce her
soul: "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce."*
The holy Virgin herself said to St. Matilda,
that at the announcement of St. Simeon all her
joy was changed into sorrow. f For, as it w.is
revealed to St. Theresa, the blessed mother, al
though she knew before this that the life of her
Son would be sacrificed for the salvation of the
world, yet she then learned more particularly
and distinctly the sufferings and cruel death
that awaited her poor Son. She knew that he
would be contradicted in all things. Contradict
ed in doctrine; for instead of being believed, he
would be esteemed a blasphemer for teaching
that he was the Son of God, as the impious Cai-

aphas declared him to be, saying: "He hath blas
phemed, he is guilty of death."* Contradicted
in his reputation, for he was noble, of royal lin
eage, and was despised as a peasant: "Is not
this the carpenter s son?"f "Is not this the car
penter, the son of Mary?"J He was wisdom it
self, and was treated as an ignorant man: "How
doth this man know letters, having never learn
ed? ^ As a false prophet: "And they blind
folded him and smote his face .... saying:
Prophesy who is this that struck thee."| He
was treated as a madman: "He is mad, why hear
youhim?"^T As a wine-bibber, a glutton, and a
friend of sinners: "Behold a man that is a glut
ton, and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans
and sinners."** As a sorcerer: "By the prince
of devils he casteth out devils."ff As a heretic
and possessed person: "Do we not say well of
thee, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a dev
il ?"JJ In a word, Jesus was considered as so
bad and notorious a man, that no trial was nec
essary to condemn him, as the Jews said to Pilate:
"If he were not a malefactor, we would not have

delivered him up to thee."* He was contradict
ed in his eoul, for even his eternal Father, in or-
der to give place to the divine justice, contra
dicted him by not wishing to hear him when he
prayed to him, saying: "Father, if it be possi
ble, let this chalice pass from me;"f and aban
doned him to fear, weariness, and sadness, so
that our afflicted Lord said: "My soul is sorrow
ful even unto death."J His interior suffering
even caused him to sweat blood. Contradicted
and persecuted, in a word, in his body and in his
life, for he was tortured in all his sacred mem
bers: in his hands, in his feet, in his face, and in
his head, in his whole body, till, drained to the
last drop of his blood, he died an ignominious
death on the cross.

When David, in the midst of all his pleasures
and royal grandeur^ heard from Nathan the
prophet, that his son should die "The child
that is born to thee shall surely die" he
could find no peace, but wept, fasted, and slept
upon the ground. Mary received with the
greatest calmness the announcement that her
Son should die, and peacefully continued to sub
mit to it; but what grief she must have con
tinually suffered, seeing this amiable Son always
near her, hearing from him words of eternal Iife 9

and beholding his holy demeanor. Abraham
suffered great affliction during the three days he
passed with his beloved Isaac, after he knew
that he was to lose him. Oh God ! not for three
days, but for thirty three years, Mary had to en
dure a like sorrow. Like, do I say ? A sorrow
as much greater as the Son of Mary was more
lovely than the son of Abraham. The blessed
Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget,* that
while she lived on the earth there was not an
hour when this grief did not pierce her soul:
As often, she continued, as I looked upon my
Son, as often as I wrapped him in his swaddling
clothes, as often as I saw his hands and his feet, so
often was my soul overwhelmed as it were with
a fresh sorrow, because I considered how he
would be crucified. f Rupert the Abbot, con
templating Mary, while she was suckling her
Son, imagines her addressing him in these words:
"A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, ha
shall abide between my breasts. ^ Ah, my Son,
I clasp the in my arms, because thou art so dear
to me; but the dearer thou art to me, the more
thou dost become to me a bundle of myrrh and
of sorro w, when I think of thy sufferings. Mary,
says St. Bernardino of Sienna, considered that

the strength of the saints was to pass through
death; the beauty of paradise to be deformed;
the Lord of the universe to be bound as a crim
inal; the Creator of all things to be livid witk
stripes; the Judge of all to be condemned; the
glory of heaven despised; the King of kings
to be crowned with thorns, and treated as a
mock king.

Father Engelgrave writes, that it was revealed
to the same St. Bridget, that the afflicted moth
er, knowing all that her Son would have to
suffer, suckling him, thought of the gall and
vinegar; when she swathed him, of the cords
with which he was to be bound; when she
bore him in her arms, she thought of him being
nailed to the cross ; and when he slept, she thought
of his death.* As often as she put on him his
clothes, she reflected that they would one day be
torn from him, that he might be crucified; and
when she beheld his sacred hands and feet, and
thought of the nails that were to pierce them,
as Mary said to St. Bridget: "My eyes filled
with tears, and my heart was tortured with
grief."t

The evangelist says, that as Jesus Christ ad*
vanced in years, so also he advanced in wisdom

and in grace with God and men.* That is, he
advanced in wisdom and in grace before men
or in their estimation; and before God, accord
ing to St. Thomas, f inasmuch as all his works
would continually have availed to increase his
merit, if from the beginning grace in its com
plete fulness had not been conferred on him by
virtue of the hypostatic union. But if Jesus ad
vanced in the esteem and love of others, how
much more did he advance in Mary s love! But
oh God, as love increased in her, the more in
creased in her the grief of having to lose him by
a death so cruel. And the nearer the time of
the passion of her Son approached, with so much
greater pain did that sword of sorrow, predict
ed by St. Simeon, pierce the heart of the moth
er; precisely this the angel revealed to St. ^Brid
get, saying: "That sword of sorrow was every
hour drawing nearer to the Virgin as the time for
the passion of her Son drew nearer. "J

If, then, Jesus our King and his most holy
mother did not refuse, for love of us, to suffer
during their whole life such cruel pains, there is
BO reason that we should complain if we suffer
a little. Jesus cruciiied once appeared to sister
Magdalene Orsini, a Dominican nun, when she
had been long suffering a great trial, and en-

couraged her to remain with him on the cross
with that sorrow that was afflicting her. Sister
Magdalene answered him complainingly: "Oh
Lord, thou didst suffer on the cross only three
hours, but it is more than three years that I have
been suffering this cross." Then the Redeemer
replied: "Ah! ignorant soul, what dost thou say?
I, from the first moment I was conceived, suf
fered in heart what I afterwards suffered on the
cross. " If, then, we too suffer any affliction
and complain, let us imagine that Jesus and his
mother Mary are saying to us the same words.

EXAMPLE.

Father Roviglione, of the Company of Jesus,
relates,* that a certain youth practised the de
votion of visiting every day an image of the sor
rowful Mary, in which she was represented with
seven swords piercing her heart. One night the
unhappy youth fell into mortal sin. Going next
morning to visit the image, he saw in the heart
of the blessed Virgin not only seven, but eight
swords. As he stood gazing at this, he heard a
voice saying to him, that this sin had added the
eighth sword to the heart of Mary. This soften
ed his hard heart; he went immediately to con
fession, and through the intercession of his ad
Tocate, recovered the divine grace.

PRAYER.

Oh my blessed mother, not one sword only, but
as many swords as I have committed sins have I

* Fase. di Hose, p. 2, c. &

GLORIES OF MAKY. 545

added to those seven in thy heart. Ah, my Lady,
thy sorrows are not due to thee who art inno
cent, but to me who am guilty. But since thou
hast wished to suffer so much for me, ah, by thy
merits obtain for me great sorrow for my sins,
and patience under the trials of this life, which
will always be light in comparison with
my demerits, for I have often merited hell.
Amen.

ON THE SECOND DOLOR.

OF THE FLIGHT OF JESUS INTO EGYPT.

As the stag, wounded by an arrow, carries the
pain with him wherever he goes, because he car
ries with him the arrow that has wounded him;
thus the divine mother, after the prophecy of
St. Simeon, as we saw in our consideration of
the first grief, always carried her sorrow with
her by the continual remembrance of the passion
of her Son. Ailgrin, explaining this passage of
the Canticles, "The hairs of thy head as the
purple of the king bound in the channel," * says:
These hairs of Mary were her continual thoughts
of the passion of Jesus, which kept always be
fore her eyes the blood which was one day to
flow from his wounds. Thy mind, oh Mary, and
thy thoughts tinged in the blood of the passion
of our Lord, were always moved with sorrow as
if ihey actually saw the blood flowing from his

wounds.* Thus her Son himself was that arrow
in the heart of Mary, who, the more worthy of
love he showed himself to her, always wounded
her the more with the sorrowful thoughi that
she should lose him by so cruel a death. Let us
now pass to the consideration of the second
sword of sorrow which wounded Mary, in the
flight of her infant Jesus into Egypt from the
persecution of Herod.

Herod having heard that the expected Messiah
was born, foolishly feared that the new-born
King would deprive him of his kingdom. Hence
St. Fulgentius, reproving him for his folly, thus
says: "Why, oh Herod, art thou thu^t disturbed ?
This King who is born has not come to conquer
kings by arms, but to subjugate ti.em, in a
wonderful manner, by his death." f The ^mpious
Herod, therefore, waited to learn from tho holy
magi where the King was born, that he ra/ght
take from him his life; but finding himself de
ceived by the magi, he ordered all the infants
that could be found in the neighborhood of
Bethlehem to be put to death. But an angel
appeared in a dream to St. Joseph, and said to
him:" Arise, and take the child and his mother,
and fly into Egypt." J According to Gerson,

immediately, on that very night, Joseph made
this command known to Mary; and taking the
infant Jesus, they commenced their journey, as
it seems clearly from the Gospel itself: <c Who
arose and took the child and his mother by night,
and retired into Egypt." Oh God, as blessed
Albertus Magnus says in the name of Mary,
must he, then, who came to save men flee from
men? " Debet fugere qui salvator est mundi?"*
And then the afflicted Mary knew that already
the prophecy of Simeon, regarding her Son, was
beginning to be verified: " He is set for a sign
which shall be contradicted." f Seeing that
scarcely is he born,when he is persecuted to death.
What suffering it must have been to the heart
of Mary, writes St. John Chrysostom, to hear
the tidings of that cruel exile of herself with her
Son! Flee from thy friends to strangers, from
the holy temple of the only true God, to the
temples of demons. What greater tribulation
than that a new-born child, clinging to its moth
er s bosom, should be forced to fly with the
mother herself ! J

Every one can imagine how much Mary must
have suffered on this journey. It was a long
distance to Egypt. Authors generally agree
with Barrada that it was four hundred miles;

so that at least it was a journey of thirty days.
The way, as St. Bonaventure describes it, was
rough, unknown, through woods, and little
frequented.* The season was winter, and
therefore they had to travel in snow, rain, wind,
and storms, and through bad and difficult roads.
Mary was then fifteen years of age, a delicate
virgin, unaccustomed to such journeys. They
had no servant to attend them. Joseph and
Mary, said St. Peter Chrysologus, had no man
servant nor maid-servant; they were themselves
both masters and servants.f Oh God, how
piteous a spectacle it was to see that tender
Virgin, with that newly born infant in her
arms wandering through this world! St. Bona-
venture asks, Where did they obtain food?
Where did they rest at night? How were they
lodged ?J What other food could they have,
than a piece of hard bread which Joseph
brought with him or begged in charity? Where
could they have slept (particularly in the two
hundred miles of desert through which they
travelled, where, as authors relate, there were
neither houses nor inns) except on the sand, or
under some tree in the wood, in the open air,
exposed to robbers, or those wild beasts with
which Egypt abounded ? Ah, if any one had
met these three greatest personages of the world,

what would he have believed them to be but
three poor, roving beggars?

They lived in Egypt, according to Brocard
and Jansenius, in a district called Matures,
though, according to St. Anselm, they dwelt in
Heliopolis, first called Memphis, and now Cairo.
And here let us consider the great poverty they
must have suffered for the seven years they
were there, as St. Antoninus, St. Thomas, and
others assert, They were foreigners, unknown,
without revenues, without money, without kin
dred; hardly were they able to support them
selves by their humble labors. As they were
destitute, says St. Basil, it is manifest what ef
fort they must have made to obtain there the
necessaries of life.* Moreover, Landolph of
Saxony has written, and let it be repeated for
the consolation of the poor, that so great was
the poverty of Mary there, that sometimes she
had not so much as a morsel of bread, when her
Son, forced by hunger, asked it of her.f

St. Matthew also relates that when Herod waa
dead, the angel again appeared, in a dream, to
St. Joseph, and directed him to return to Ju-
dea. St. Bonaventure, speaking of his return,
considers the greater pain of the blessed Virgin,
on account of the sufferings which Jesus must
have endured in that journey, having arrived at
about the age of seven years an age, says the
saint, when he was so large that he could not be

The sight, then, of Jesus and Mary wander
ing like fugitives through this world, teaches us
that we should also live as pilgrims on the earth,
detached from the goods which the world offers
us, as having soon to leave them and go to eter
nity. "We have not here a lasting city, but seek
one that is to come."f To which St. Augustine
adds: Thou art a stranger, thou givest a look,
and then passest on: "Hospes es, vides et tran-
sis." It also teaches us to embrace crosses, for
ire cannot live in this world without a cross.
The blessed Veronica da Binasco, an Augustinian
nun, was carried in spirit to accompany Mary
and the infant Jesus in this journey to Egypt,
and at the end of it the divine mother said to her:
"Child, hast thou seen through what difficulties
we have reached this place? Now learn that
no one receives graces without suffering." He
who wishes to feel least the sufferings of this
life, must take Jesus and Mary with him: "Ac-
cipe puerum et matrem ejus." For him who
lovingly bears in his heart this Son and this
mother, all sufferings become light, and even
sweet and dear. Let us then love them, let us
console Mary by receiving her Son within our
hearts, whom, even now, men continue to perse
cute with their sins.

One day the most holy Mary appeared to tht
blessed Colletta, a Franciscan nun, and showed
her the infant Jesus in a basin, torn in pieces,
and then said to her: "Thus sinners continually
treat my Son, renewing his death and my sor
rows ; oh, my daughter, pray for them that they
may be converted."* Similar to this is that other
vision which appeared to the venerable sister
Jane, of Jesus and Mary, also a Franciscan nun.
As she was one day meditating on the infant
Jesus, persecuted by Herod, she heard a great
noise, as of armed people, who were pursuing
some one; and then appeared before her a most
beautiful child, who was fleeing in great distress,
and cried to her: "My Jane, help me, hide me; I am
Jesus of Nazareth, I am flying from sinners who
wish to kill me, and who persecute me as Herod
did: do thou save me."f

PEAYER.

Then, oh Mary, even after thy Son hath died
by the hands of men who persecuted him unto
death, have not these ungrateful men yet ceas
ed from persecuting him with their sins, and con
tinuing to afflict thee, oh mother of sorrows ?
And I also, oh God, have been one of these.
Ah, my most sweet mother, obtain for me
tears to weep for such ingratitude. And then, by
the sufferings thou didst experience in the jour
ney to Egypt, assist me in the journey that I am
* Ap. P. Genev. Serv. DoL di Mar. t Loc. ctt.

552 GLORIES OF MARY.

making to eternity, that at length I may go to
unite with thee in loving my persecuted Saviour,
in the country of the blessed. Amen.

ON THE THIRD DOLOR.

OF THE LOSS OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.

ST. JAMES the Apostle has said, that our per
fection consists in the virtue of patience. "And
patience hath a perfect work, that you may be
perfect and entire, failing in nothing."* The
Lord having then given us the Virgin Mary as
an example of perfection, it was necessary that
she should be laden with sorrows, that in her
we might admire and imitate her heroic patience.
The dolor that we are this day to consider is
one of the greatest which our divine mother
Buffered during her life, namely, the loss of her
Son in the temple. He who is born blind is lit
tle sensible of the pain of being deprived of the
light of day; but to him who has once had sight
and enjoyed the light, it is a great sorrow to
find himself deprived of it by blindness. And
thus it is with those unhappy souls who, being
blinded by the mire of this earth, have but little
knowledge of God, and therefore scarcely feel
pain at not finding him. On the contrary, the
man who, illuminated with celestial light, has
been made worthy to find by love the sweet

presence of the highest good, oh God, how he
mourns when he finds himself deprived of it !

From this we can judge how painful must
have been to Mary, who was accustomed to en-
joy constantly the sweet presence of Jesus, that
third sword which wounded her, when she lost
him in Jerusalem, and was separated from him
for three days.

In the second chapter of St. Luke we read
that the blessed Virgin, being accustomed to
visit the temple every year at the paschal sea
son, with Joseph her spouse and Jesus, once
went when he was about twelve years old, and
Jesus remained in Jerusalem, though she was not
aware of it for she thought he was in company
with others. When she reached Nazareth she
inquired for her Son, and not finding him there,
she returned immediately to Jerusalem to seek
him, but did not succeed until after three days.
Now let us imagine what distress that afflicted
mother must have experienced in those three days
in which she was searching everywhere for her
Son, with the spouse in the Canticles : "Have
you seen him whom my soul loveth?"* But she
could hear no tidings of him. Oh, with how
much greater tenderness must Mary, overcome
with fatigue, and yet not having found her be
loved Son, have repeated those words of Ruben,
concerning his brother Joseph: The boy doth
not appear, and whither shall I go? "Puer non
comparet, et ego quo ibo ?" My Jesus doth not
appear, and I know not what to do that I may
* Wum quern diligit anima mea vidietis? Cant. iii. 8.

55* GLORIES OF MARY.

find him; but where shall I go without my treas
ure? Weeping continually, she repeated during
these three days with David: "My tears have
been my bread day and night, whilst it is said
to me daily, Where is thy God ?* Wherefore
Pelbart with reason says, that during those
nights the afflicted mother had no rest, but wept
and prayed without ceasing to God, that he
would enable her to find her Son.f And, accord
ing to St. Bernard, often during that time did
she repeat to her Son himself the words of the
spouse: "Show me where thou feedest, where
thou liest in the mid-day, lest I begin to wan
der. ^ My Son, tell me where thou art, that I
may no longer wander, seeking thee in vain.

Some writers assert, and not without reason,
that this dolor was not only one of the greatest,
but that it was the greatest and most painful of
all. For in the first place, Mary in her other
dolors had Jesus with her; she suffered when
St. Simeon uttered the prophecy in the temple;
she suffered in the flight to Egypt, but always
with Jesus; but in this dolor she suffered at a
distance from Jesus, without knowing where he
was: "And the light of my eyes itself is not
with me." Thus, with tears, she then ex
claimed: Ah, the light of my eyes, my dear

Jesus, is no more with me; he is far from me, I
know not where he ?.s! Origen says, that though
the love which this holy mother bore her Son,
she suffered more at this loss of Jesus than any
martyr ever suffered at death.* Ah, how long:
were these three days for Mary! they appeared
three ages. Very bitter days, for there was
none to comfort her. And who, she exclaimed
with Jeremias, who can console me if he who
could console me is far from me? and therefore
my eyes are not satisfied with weeping : "There
fore do I weep, and my eyes run down with
water, because the comforter is far from me."f-
And with Tobias she repeated: "What manner
of joy shall be to me who sit in darkness, and
see not the light of heaven?"J

Secondly. Mary well understood the cause
and end of the other dolors, namely, the redemp
tion of the world, the divine will ; but in this she
did not know the cause of the absence of her Son.
The sorrowful mother was grieved to find Jesus
withdrawn from her, for her humility, says
Lanspergius, made her consider herself unwor
thy to remain with him any longer, and attend
upon him on earth, and have the care of such a
treasure. And perhaps, she may have thought

within herself, I have not served him as I ought.
Perhaps I have been guilty of some neglect, and
therefore he has left me. They sought him, lest
he perchance had left them, as Origen has said.*
Certainly there is no greater grief for a soul that
loves God than the fear of having displeased him.
And therefore Mary never complained in any
other sorrow but this, lovingly expostulating
with Jesus after she found him : "Son, why hast
thou done so to us? Thy father and I have
sought thee sorrowing."! By these words she
did not wish to reprove Jesus, as the heretics
blasphemously assert, but only to make known
to kim the grief she had experienced during his
absence from her, on account of the love she bore
him. It was not a rebuke, says blessed Denis
the Carthusian, but a loving complaint : "Non
erat increpatio, sed amorosa conquestio." Fi
nally, this sword so cruelly pierced the heart of
the Virgin, that the blessed Benvenuta, desiring
one day to share tho pain of the holy mother in
this dolor, and praying her to obtain for her this
grace, Mary appeared to her with the infant
Jesus in her arms; but while Benvenuta was
enjoying the sight of that most beautiful child,
in one moment she was deprived of it. So
great was her sorrow that she had recourse to
Mary, to implore her pity that it should not
make her die of grief. The holy Virgin ap-

peared to her again three days after, and said to
her: "Now learn, oh my daughter, that thy sor^
row is but a small part of that which I suffered
when I lost my Son."*

This sorrow of Mary ought, in the first place,
to serve as a comfort to those souls who are des
olate and do not enjoy the sweet presence they
once enjoyed of their Lord. They may weep,
but let them weep in peace, as Mary wept in the
absence of her Son. Let them take courage, and
not fear that on this account they have lost the
divine favor, for God himself said to St. Theresa:
"No one is lost without knowing it; and no one
is deceived without wishing to be deceived." If
the Lord departs from the sight of that soul who
loves him, he does not therefore depart from the
heart. He often hides himself that she may seek
him with greater desire and love. But those
who would find Jesus must seek him, not amid
the delights and pleasures of the world, but
amid crosses and mortifications, as Mary sought
him: We sought thee sorrowing, as she said to
her Son: "Dolentes quasrebamus te. 5? Learn
from Mary to seek Jesus, says Origen "Disce
a Maria quaerere Jesum."

Moreover, in this world we should seek no
other good than Jesus. Job was not unhappy
when he lost all that he possessed on earth;
riches, children, health, and honors, and even de
scended from a throne to a dunghill; but because
lie had God with him, even then he was happy.

* March. Diar. 30, Ott.

558 GLORIES OF MARY.

St. Augustine, speaking of him, says: He had
lost all that God had given him, but he had God
himself: "Perdiderat ilia quse dederat Deus, sed
habebat ipsum Deum." Unhappy and truly
wretched are those souls who have lost God. If
Mary wept for the absence of her Son for three
days, how ought sinners to weep who have lost
divine grace, to whom God says: "You are not
my people, and I will not be yours." * For sin
does this, namely, it separates the soul from
God: "Your iniquities have divided between
you and your God." f Hence, if even sinners
possess all the goods of earth and have lost God,
every thing on earth becomes vanity and affliction
to them, as Solomon confessed: * Behold, all is
vanity and vexation of spirit." J But as St.
Augustine says: The greatest misfortune of
these poor blind souls is, that if they lose an ox,
they do not fail to go in search of it; if they
lose a sheep, they use all diligence to find it; if
they lose a beast of burden, they cannot rest?,
but they lose the highest good, which is God, and
yet they eat and drink, and take their rest.

EXAMPLE.

We read in the Annual Letters of the Society
of Jesus, that in India, a young man who was

just leaving his apartment in order to commit
sin, heard a voice saying: "Stop, where are you
going ? He turned round and saw an image, ia
relief, of the sorrowful Mary, who drew out the
sword which was in her breast, and said to him:
"Take this dagger and pierce my heart rather
than wound my Son with this sin." At the
sound of these words the youth prostrated him
self on the ground, and with deep contrition,
bursting into tears, he asked and obtained from
God and the Virgin pardon of his sin.

PRAYER.

Oh blessed Virgin, why art thou afflicted,
seeking thy lost Son? Is it because thou dost
not know where he is? But dost thou not know
that he is in thy heart? Dost thou not see that
he is feeding among the lilies? Thou thyself
hast said it: "My beloved to me and I to him
who feedeth among the lilies."* These, thy
humble, pure, and holy thoughts and affections,
are all lilies, that invite the divine spouse to
dwell with thee. Ah, Mary, dost thou sigh after
Jesus, thou who lovest none but Jesus? Leave
sighing to me and so many other sinners who do
not love him, and who have lost him by offend
ing him. My most amiable mother, if through
my fault thy Son hast not yet returned to my
soul, wilt thou obtain for me that I may find
him. I know well that he allows himself to be
found by all who seek him: The Lord is good

to the soul that seeketh him: " Bonus est Dom-
inus . . . animse quaerenti ilium."* Make me to
seek him as I ought to seek him. Thou art the
gate through which all find Jesus; through the
I too hope to find him.

ON THE FOURTH DOLOR.

OP THE MEETING OF MARY WITH JESUS, WHEN HE
WENT TO DEATH.

ST. BERNARDINE says, that to form an idea of
the grief of Mary in losing her Jesus by death,
it is necessary to consider the love that this
mother bore to this her Son. All mothers feel
the sufferings of their children as their own.
Hence the woman of Chanaan, when she prayed
the Saviour to deliver her daughter from the
devil that tormented her, said to him, that he
should have pity on the mother rather than on
the daughter: "Have mercy on me, oh Lord,
thou son of David, my daughter is grievously
troubled by a devil."f But v/hat mother ever
loved a child so much as Mary loved Jesus?
He was her only child, reared amidst so many
troubles and pains; a most amiable child, and
most loving to his mother; a Son, who was at
the same time her Son and her God; who came
on earth to kindle in the hearts of all the holy
fire of divine love, as he himself declared: "I

um come to cast fire on the earth, and what will
I but that it be kindled?"* Let us consider
how he must have inflamed that pure heart of
his holy mother, so free from every earthly affec
tion. In a word, the blessed Virgin herself said
to St. Bridget, that through love her heart and
tie heart of her Son was one: "Urmm erat cor
meum, et cor filii mei." That blending of hand
maid and mother, of Son and God, kindled in the
heart of Mary afire composed of a thousand flames.
But afterwards, at the time of the passion, this
flame of love was changed into a sea of sorrow.
Hence St. Bernardino says: All the sorrows of
the world united would not be equal to the sor
row of the glorious Mary.f Yes, because this
mother, as St. Lawrence Justinian writes: The
more tenderly she loved, was the more deeply
wounded. J The greater the tenderness with
which she loved him, the greater was her grief
at the sight of his sufferings, especially when
she met her Son, after he had already been con
demned, going to death at the place of punish
ment, bearing the cross. And this is the fourth
sword of sorrow which to-day we have to con
sider.

The blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget that
at the time when the passion of our Lord was
drawing nigh, her eyes were always filled with

tears, as she thought of her beloved Son whom
Fhe was about to lose on this earth. There-
fore, as she also said, a cold sweat covered her
body from the fear that seized her at that pros
pect of approaching suffering.* Behold, the ap<
pointed day at length arrived, and Jesus cams
in tears to take leave of his mother before ha
went to death. St. Bonaventure, contemplating
Mary on that night, says: Thou didst spend it
without sleep, and while others slept, thou didst
remain watching.f Morning having arrived the
disciples of Jesus Christ came to this afflicted
mother, one, to bring her this tidings, another,
that; but all tidings of sorrow, for in her
were then verified the words of Jeremias:
"Weeping, she hath wept in the night, and her
tears are on her cheeks; there is none to comfort
her of all them that were dear to her."J One
came to relate to her the cruel treatment of her
Son in the house of Caiphas; another, the insulta
received by him from Herod. Finally, for I omit
the rest to come to my point, St. John came and
announced to Mary that the most unjust Pilate
had already condemned him to death upon the
cross. I say the most unjust, for, as St. Leo re
marks, this unjust judge condemned him to death
with the same lips with which he had pronounc-

ed him innocent.* Ah, sorrowful mother; said St.
John to her, thy Son has already been condemned
to death, lie is already on his way, bearing himself
kis cross on his way to Calvary, as he afterwards
related in his Gospel: "And bearing his own
cross he went forth to that place which is called
Calvary."f Come, if thou dost desire to see him^
and bid him a last farewell in some of the streets
through which he is to pass.

Mary goes with St. John, and she perceives
by the blood with which the way was sprinkled,
that her Son had already passed there. This
she revealed to St. Bridget: "By the footsteps
of my Son I traced his course, for along the way
by which he had passed, the ground was sprink
led with blood."| St. Bonaventure imagines
the afflicted mother taking a shorter way, and
placing herself at the corner of the street to
meet her afflicted Son as he passed by. This
most afflicted mother met her most afflicted Son:
Mcestissima mater mcestissimo filio occurrit, said
St. Bernard. While Mary stopped in that place
how much she must have heard said against her
Son by the Jews who knew her, and perhaps also
words in mockery of herself! Alas ! what a
commencement of sorrows was then before her
eyes, when she saw the nails, the hammers, the

cords, the fatal instruments of the death of her
Son borne before him! And what a sword pierc
ed her heart when she heard the trumpet pro
claiming along the way the sentence pronounced
against her Son ! But behold, now, after the in
struments, the trumpet, and the ministers of jus
tice had passed, she raises her eyes and sees; she
sees, oh God, a young man covered with blood
and wounds from head to foot, with a crown of
thorns on his head, and two heavy beams on his
shoulders; she looks at him and hardly knows
him, saying, then, with Isaias: " And we have
seen him, and there was no sightliness. "*Yes, for
the wounds, the bruises, and clotted blood, made
him look like a leper; "We have thought him, as
it were, a leper ;"f so that he could no longer
be recognized. "And his look was, as it were,
hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed
him not."J But at length love recognizes him,
and as soon as she knows him, ah, what was then,
as St. Peter of Alcantara says in his meditations,
the love and fear of the heart of Mary! On
the one hand, she desired to see him ; on the
other, she could not endure to look upon so pit
iable a sight. But at length they look at each
other. The Son wipes from his eyes the clotted
blood, which prevented him from seeing ( as was
revealed to St. Bridget), and looks upon the
mother; the mother looks upon the Son. Ah,

looks of sorrow, which pierced, as with so many
arrows, those two holy and loving souls. When
Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas More,
met her father on his way to the scaffold, she could
utter only two words, oh,father! oh, father! arid
fell fainting at his feet. At the sight of her
Son going to Calvary, Mary fainted not; no, be
cause it was not fitting that his mother should
lose the use of her reason, as Father Suarez re
marks, neither did she die, for God reserved her
for a greater grief; but if she did not die, she
suffered sorrow enough to cause h^r a thousand
deaths.

The mother wished to embrace him, as St.
Anselm says, but the officers of justice thrust
her aside, loading her with insults, and urge on
ward our afflicted Lord. Mary follows. Ah,
holy Virgin, where art thou going? To Cal
vary ! And canst thou trust thyself to see him
who is thy life hanging from a cross? And thy
life shall be as it were hanging before thee: "Et
erit vita tua quasi pendens ante te." * Ah! my
mother, stop, says St. Lawrence Justinian, as if
the Son himself had then spoken to her; where
dost thou hasten? Where art thou going?
If thou comest where I go, thou wilt be tor
tured with my sufferings, and I with thine.f
But although the sight of her dying Jesus
must cost her such cruel anguish, the loving

Mary will not leave him. The Son goes before,
and the mother follows, that she may be cru
cified with her Son, as William the Abbot says:
The mother took up her cross, and followed him,
that she might be crucified with him.* We
even pity the wild beasts: "Ferarum etiam
miseremur;" as St. John Chrysostom has said.
If we should see a lioness following her whelp
as he was led to death, even this wild beast would
call forth our compassion. And shall we not
feel compassion to see Mary following her im
maculate Lamb, as they are leading him to
death ? Let us then pity her, and endeavor also
ourselves to accompany her Son and herself,
bearing with patience the cross which the Lord
imposes upon us. Why did Jesus Christ, asks
St. John Chrysostom, desire to be alone in his
other sufferings, but in bearing the cross wished
to be helped by the Cyrenean ? And he answers:
That thou mayest understand that the cross of
Christ is not sufficient without thine.f The
cross alone of Jesus is not enough to save us, if
we do not bear with resignation also our own,
even unto death.

EXAMPLE.

The Saviour appeared one day to sister
Diomira, a nun, in Florence, and said to her:
" Think of me, and love me, and I will think of
thee, and love thee:" and at the same time he

presented her with a bunch of flowers and *
cross, signifying to her by this, that the con
solations of the saints on this earth are always
to be accompanied by the cross. The crofli
unites souls to God. Blessed Jerome Emilian,
when he was a soldier, and leading a very sinful
life, was shut up by his enemies in a tower.
There, feeling deeply his misfortune, and en
lightened by God to amend his life, he had re
course to the most holy Mary, and then with
the help of this divine mother, he began to live
the life of a saint. By this he merited to see
once in heaven the high place which God had
prepared for him. He became founder of the or
der of Sommaschi, died a saint, and has been late
ly beatified by the holy Church.

PRAYER.

My sorrowful mother, by the merit of that
grief which thou didst feel at seeing thy beloved
Jesus led to death, obtain for me the grace also
to bear with patience those crosses which God
sends me. Happy me, if I also shall know how
to accompany thee with my cross until death.
Thou and Jesus, both innocent, have v orne a
heavy cross; and shall I a sinner, who have mer
ited hell, refuse mine ? All, immaculate Virgin,
I hope that thou wilt help me to bear my crosses
with patience. Amen.

568 GLORIES OF MARY.

ON THE FIFTH DOLOR.

OP THE DEATH OF JESUS.

AND now we have to admire a new sort of
martyrdom, a mother condemned to see an in
nocent son, whom she loved with all the affec
tion of her heart, put to death before her eyes,
by the most barbarous tortures. There stood by
the cross of Jesus his mother: "Stabat autem
juxta crucem mater ejus." There is nothing
more to be said, says St. John, of the martyrdom
of Mary: behold her at the foot of the cross,
looking on her dying Son, and then see if there
is grief like her grief. Let us stop then also to
day on Calvary, to consider this fifth sword that
pierced the heart of Mary, namely, the death of
Jesus.

As soon as our afflicted Redeemer had ascend
ed the hill of Calvary, the executioners stripped
him of his garments, and piercing his sacred hands
and feet with nails, not sharp, but blunt: "Non
acutis, sed obtusis;" as St. Bernard says,* and to
torture him more, they fastened him to the cross.
When they had crucified him, they planted the
cross, and thus left him to die. The execution
ers abandon him, but Mary does not abandon
him. She then draws nearer to the cross, in
order to assist at his death. "I did not leave
him," thus the blessed Virgin revealed to St.

* Serm, 2, de Pass.

GLORIES OF MARY. 569

Bridget, "and stood nearer to his cross. "* But
what did it avail, oh Lady, says St. Bonaventurc,
to go to Calvary to witness there the death of
this Son? Shame should have prevented thee, for
his disgrace was also thine, because thou wast
his mother; or, at least, the horror of such a
crime as that of seeing a God crucified by his
own creatures, should have prevented thee.f
But the saint himself answers: Thy heart did
not consider the horror, but the suffering: "Non
considerabat cor tuum horrorem, sed dolorem."
Ah, thy heart did not then care for its own sor
row, but for the suffering and death of thy dear
Son; and therefore thou thyself didst wish to be
near him, at least to compassionate him. Ah,
true mother! says William the Abbot, loving
mother! for not even the terror of death could
separate thee from thy beloved Son.J But, oh
God, what a spectacle of sorrow, to see this Son
then in agony upon the cross, and under the crosi
this mother in agony, who was suffering all the
pain that her Son was suffering! Behold the
words in which Mary revealed to St. Bridget
the pitiable state of her dying Son, as she saw
him on the cross: "My dear Jesus was on the
cross in grief and in agony; his eyes were sunk
en, half closed, and lifeless; the lips hanging,
and the mouth open; the cheeks hollow, and

attached to the teeth; the face lengthened, the
nose sharp, the countenance sad; the head had
fallen upon his breast, the hair black with blood,
the stomach collapsed, the arms and legs stiff,
and the whole body covered with wounds and
blood."*

Mary also suffered all these pains of Jesus.
Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus,
says St. Jerome, was a wound in the heart of
the mother.f Any one of us who should then
have been on Mount Calvary, would have seen
two altars, says St. John Chrysostom, on which
two great sacrifices were consummating, one in the
body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary.
But rather would I see there, with St. Bonaven-
ture, one altar only, namely, the cross alone of
the Son, on which, with the victim, this di
vine Lamb, the mother also was sacrificed.
Therefore the saint interrogates her in these
words: Oh Lady, where art thou? Near the
cross? Nay, on the cross, thou art crucified
with thy Son.J St. Augustine also says the
same thing: The cross and nails of the Son were
also the cross and nails of the mother; Christ
being crucified, the mother was also crucified.
Yes, because, as St. Bernard says, love inflicted

on the heart of Mary the same suffering that the
nails caused in the body of Jesus.* Therefore,
at the same time that the Son was sacrificing hia
body, the mother, as St. Bernardino says, wat
sacrificing her soul.f 1

Mothers fly from the presence of their dying
children; but if a mother is ever obliged to wit
ness the death of a child, she procures for him
all possible relief; she arranges the bed, that
his posture may be more easy; she administers
refreshments to him; and thus the poor mother
relieves her own sorrows. Ah, mother, the most
afflicted of all mothers! oh Mary, it was decreed
that thou shouldst be present at the death of
Jesus, but it was not given to thee to afford him
any relief. Mary heard her Son say: I thirst:
Sitio;" but it was not permitted her to give
him a little water to quench his great thirst.
She could only say to him, as St. Vincent Ferrer
remarks; My Son, I have only the water of my
tears: "Fili, non habeo nisi aquara lacry-
marum."J She saw that her Son, suspended by
three nails to that bed of sorrow, could find no
rest. She wished to clasp him to her heart,
that she might give him relief, or at least that
he might expire in her arms, but she could not.
She only saw that poor Son in a sea of sorrow,

eeking one who could console him as he had pre*
dieted by the mouth of the prophet: "I have
trodden the winepress alone; I looked about and
there was none to help; I sought and there
was none to give aid."* But who was there
among men to console him, if all were his
enemies? Even on the cross they cursed and
mocked him on every side: "And they that
passed by blasphemed him, wagging their
heads."f Some said to him: "If thou be the Son
of God, come down from the cross."J Some ex
claimed: "He saved others, himself he cannot
save." Others said: "If he be the King of
Israel, let him corne down from the cross." ||
The blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget:
"I heard some call my Son a thief; I heard others
call him an impostor; others said that no one de
served death more than he; and every word was
to me a new sword of sorrow. "T

But what increased most the sorrows which
Mary suffered through compassion for her Son,
was to hear him complain on the cross that even
the eternal Father had abandoned him: "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"**
Words which, as the divine mother herself said

to St. Bridget, could never depart from her mind
during her whole life.* Thus the afflicted
mother saw her Jesus suffering on every side ;
she desired to comfort him, but could not. And
what caused her the greatest sorrow was to see
that, by her presence and her grief, she increased
the sufferings of her Son. The sorrow itself, saya
St. Bernard, that filled the heart of Mary, in
creased the bitterness of sorrow in the heart of
Jesus. f St. Bernard also says, that Jesus on the
cross suffered more from compassion for his moth
er than from his own pains: he thus speaks in the
name of the Virgin: I stood and looked upon
him, and he looked upon me; and he suffered
more for me than for himself.]; The same saint
also, speaking of Mary beside her dying Son,
says, that she lived dying without being able to
die: Near the cross stood his mother, speechless;
living she died, dying she lived; neither could
she die, because she was dead, being yet alive.
Passino writes that Jesus Christ himself, speak
ing one day to the blessed Baptista Varana, of
Camerino, said to her, that he was so afflicted on
the cross at the sight of his mother in such an
guish at his feet, that compassion for his mother

caused him to die without consolation. So that
the blessed Baptista, being enlightened to know
this suffering of Jesus, exclaimed: Oh my Lord,
tell me no more of this thy sorrow, for I can
not bear it.

Men were astonished, says Simon of Cassia,
when they saw this mother then keep silence,
without uttering a complaint in this great suf
fering.* But if the lips of Mary were silent,
her heart was not so; for she did not cease offering
to divine justice the life of her Son for our sal
vation. Therefore we know thai by the merits
of her dolors she co-operated with Christ in
bringing us forth to the life of grace, and there
fore we are children of her sorrows: Christ, says
Lanspergius, wished her whom he had appointed
for our mother to co-operate with him in our re
demption; for she herself at the foot of the cross
was to bring us forth as her children.! And if
ever any consolation entered into that sea of bit
terness, namely, the heart of Mary, it was this
only one; namely, the knowledge that by means
of her sorrows, she was bringing us to eternal
salvation; as Jesus himself revealed to St. Brid
get: "My mother Mary, on account of her com
passion and charity, was made mother of all in
heaven and on earth. "J And, indeed, these were

the last words with which Jesus took leave of
her before his death; this was his last remem
brance, leaving us to her for her children in the
person of John, when he said to her: Woman,
behold thy Son: "Mulier ecce filius tuus."* And
from that time Mary began to perform for us
this office of a good mother; for, as St. Peter Da-
inian declares, the penitent thief, through the
prayers of Mary, was then converted and saved:
Therefore the good thief repented, because the
blessed Virgin, standing between the cross of
her Son and that of the thief, prayed her Son
for him; thus rewarding, by this favor, his form
er service. f For as other authors also relate, this
thief, in the journey to Egypt with the infant
Jesus, showed them kindness; and this same of
fice the blessed Virgin has ever continued, and
still continues to perform.

EXAMPLE.

A young man in Perugia once promised the
devil that if he would help him to commit a sin
ful act which he desired to do, he would give
him his soul; and he gave him a writing to that
effect, signed with his blood. The evil deed was
committed, and the devil demanded the perfor
mance of the promise. He led the young man to
a well, and threatened to take him body and soul

to hell if he would not cast himself into it. The
wretched youth, thinking that it would be impos
sible for him to escape from his enemy, climbed the
well-side in order to cast himself into it, but terri
fied at the thought of death, he said to the devil
that he had not the courage to throw himself in,
and that, if he wished to see him dead, he himself
should thrust him in. The young man wore
about his neck the scapular of the sorrowing
Mary; and the devil said to him: Take off that
Bcapular,and I will thrust you in." But the youth,
seeing the protection which the divine mother
still gave him through that scapular, refused to
take it off, and after a great deal of altercation,
the devil departed in confusion. The sinner re
pented, and grateful to his sorrowful mother,
went to thank her, and presented a picture of
this case, as an offering, at her altar in the new
church of Santa Maria, in Perugia.*

PRAYER.

Ah, mother, the most afflicted of all mothers,
thy Son, then, is dead; thy Son so amiable, and
who loved thee so much! Weep, for thou hast
reason to weep. Who can ever console thee?
Nothing can console thee but the thought that Je
sus, by his death, hath conquered hell, hath open
ed paradise which was closed to men, and hath
gained so many souls. From that throne of the
cross he was to reign over so many hearts, which,
conquered by his love, would serve him with

* Monum. Conv. Pec. ap. P. Sinisch. Sans. KJ.

GLORIES OF MARY.

love. Do not disdain, oh my mother, to keep me
near to weep with thee, for I have more reason
than thou to weep for the offences that I have
committed against thy Son. Ah, mother of
mercy, I hope for pardon and my eternal salva*
tion, first through the death of my Redeemer, and
then through the merits of thy dolors. Amen.

ON THE SIXTH DOLOR.

THE PIERCING OF THE SIDE OF JESUS, AND HIS DE
SCENT FROM THE CROSS.

"Oh, all ye that pass by the way attend, and
see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow." *
Devout souls, listen to what the sorrowful
Mary says to you to-day: My beloved children,
I do not wish you to console me; no, for my
heart can never again be consoled on this earth
after the death of my dear Jesus. If you wish
to please me, this I ask of you, turn to me and
see if there has ever been in the world a grief
like mine, when I saw him who was all my love
torn from me so cruelly. But, oh Lady, since
thou dost not wish to be consoled, and hast such
a thirst for suffering, I must say to thee that
thy sorrows have not ended with the death of
thy Son. To-day thou wilt be pierced by
another sword of sorrow, when thou shalt see a
cruel lance piercing the side of this thy Son, al
ready dead, and shalt receive him in thy arms
after he is taken from the cross. And now we

are to consider to-day the sixth dolor which
afflicted this sorrowful mother. Attend and
weep. Hitherto the dolors of Mary tortured
her one by one, but to-day they are all united to
assail her.

To make known to a mother that her child is
dead, is sufficient to kindle her whole soul with
love for the lost one. Some persons, in order
to lighten their grief, will remind mothers whose
children have died, of the displeasure they had
once caused them. But if I, oh my queen,
should wish to lighten thy sorrow for the death
of Jesus in this way, what displeasure has he
ever caused thee, that I could recall to thy
mind? Ah, no; he always loved thee, obeyed
thee and respected thee. Now thou hast lost
him, and who can describe thy sorrow ? Do
thou who hast felt it explain it. A devout
author says, that when our Redeemer was dead,
the heart of the great mother was first engaged
in accompanying the most holy soul of the Son,
and presenting it to the eternal father. I pre
sent thee, oh my God, Mary must then have
said, the immaculate soul of thy and my Son,
which has been obedient to thee even unto death :
receive it, then, in thy arms. Thy justice is
now satisfied, thy will accomplished; behold,
the great sacrifice to thy eternal glory is con-
gummated. And then turning to the lifeless
members of her Jesus: Oh wounds, she said, oh
loving wounds, I adore you, I rejoice with you,
since through you salvation has been given to

GLORIES OF MARY.

the world. You shall remain open in the body
of my Son, to be the refuge of those who will
have recourse to you. Oh how many, through
you, shall receive the pardon of their sins, and
then through you shall be inflamed to love the
Sovereign Good!

That the joy of the following Paschal Sabbath
should not be disturbed, the Jews wished the
body of Jesus to be taken down from the cross;
but because they could not take down a criminal
until he was dead, they came with iron mallets
to break his legs, as they had already done to
the two thieves crucified with him. And Mary,
while she remains weeping at the death of her
Son, sees those armed men coming towards her
Jesus. At this sight she first trembled with fear,
then she said : Ah, my Son is already dead, cease
to maltreat him, and cease to torture me a poor
mother longer. She implored them not to break
his legs : "Oravit eos, ne frangerent crura," as
St. Bonaventure writes. But while she is thus
speaking, oh, God ! she sees a soldier with vio
lence brandishing a spear, and piercing the side
of Jesus : "One of the soldiers with a spear open
ed his side, and immediately there came out
blood and water."* The cross shook at the
stroke of the spear, and, as was revealed to St.
Bridget, the heart of Jesus was divided : "Ita
ut ambae paries essent divisse."f There came out
blood and water, for only a few drops of blood
remained, and those also the Saviour wished to

shed, in order to show that he had no more blood
to give us. The injury of that stroke was of-
ered to Jesus, but the pain was inflicted on Mary:
Christ, says the devout Lanspergius, shared with
his mother the infliction of that wound, for here-
ceived the insult and his mother the pain.* The
holy Fathers explain this to be the very sword
predicted to the Virgin by St. Simeon ; a sword,
not of iron, but of grief,which pierced through
her blessed soul in the heart of Jesus, where it
always dwelt. Thus, among others, Si. Bernard
says: The spear which opened his side passed
through the soul of the Virgin, which could not
be torn from the heart of Jesus.f And the di
vine mother herself revealed the same to St.
Bridget, saying: When the spear was drawn out,
the point appeared red with blood; then I felt
as if my heart were pierced when I saw the
heart of my most dear Son pierced."J The
angel told St. Bridget, that such were the suffer
ings of Mary, that she was saved from death
only by the miraculous power of God. In her
other dolors she at least had her Son to com
passionate her; and now she had not even him
to take pity on her.

injuries might be inflicted on her Son, entreats
Joseph of Arimathea to obtain from Pilate the
body of her Jesus, that at least after his death
she may be able to guard it and protect it from
injuries. Joseph went to Pilate, and made
known to him the sorrow and the wish of this
afflicted mother; and St. Anselrn thinks that com
passion for the mother softened the heart of Pi
late, and moved him to grant her the body. of the
Saviour. And now Jesus is taken from the
cross. Oh most holy Virgin, after thou with so
great love hadst given thy Son to the world for
our salvation, behold the world returns him to
thee again! But oh, my God, ho\v dost thou re
turn him to me? said Mary to the world. My
Son was white and ruddy: "Dilectus meus can-
didus et rubicundus:" but thou hast returned him
to me blackened with bruises, and red, not with
a ruddy color, but with the wounds thou hast
inflicted upon him; he was beautiful, now there
is no more beauty in him; he is all deformity.
All were enamored with his aspect, now he ex
cites horror in all who look upon him. Oh, how
many swords, says St. Bonaventure, pierced the
soul of this mother, when she received the body
of her Son after it was taken from the cross:
" O quot gladii animam matris pertransierunt!"
Let us consider what anguish it would cause any
mother to receive the lifeless body of a son! it
was revealed to St. Bridget, that to take down
the body of Jesus, three ladders were placed
against the cross. Those holy disciples first

GLORIES OP MARY.

drew out the nails from the hands and feet, and
according to Metaphrastes, gave them in charge
to Mary. Then one supported the upper part of
the body of Jesus, the other the lower, and thus
took it down from the cross. Bernardino de
Bustis describes the afflicted mother as raising
herself, and extending her arms to meet her
dear Son; she embraces him, and then sits down
at the foot of the cross. She sees his mouth
open, his eye shut, she examines the lacerated
flesh, and those exposed bones; she takes off the
crown, and sees the cruel injury made by those
thorns, in that sacred head; she looks upon
those pierced hands and feet, and says: Ah, my
Son, to what has the love thou didst bear to men
reduced thee ! But what evil ha? t thou done to
them, that they have treated thee so cruelly?
Thou wast my Father, Bernardino de Bustis im
agines her to say, my brother, my spouse, my de
light, my glory, my all.* Oh, my Son, behold how
I am afflicted, look upon me and console me; but
thou dost look upon me no more. Speak, speak
to me but one word, and console me; but thou
dost speak no more, for thou art dead. Then
turning to those barbarous instruments, she said:
Oh cruel thorns, oh nails, oh merciless spear, how
could you thus torture your Creator? But what
thorns, what nails? Alas! sinners, she exclaimed,
it is you who have thus cruelly treated my Son.
Thus Mary spoke and complained of us. But

if now she were capable of suffering, what would
she say? What grief would she feel to see
that men after the death of her Son, continue
to torment and crucify him by their sins? Let
us no longer give pain to this sorrowful mother;
and if we also have hither to grieved her by our
sins, let us now do what she directs. She says to
us * Return, ye transgressors, to the heart: "Re-
dite, prsevaricatores, ad cor."* Sinners, return to
the wounded heart of my Jesus; return as peni
tents, for he will receive you. Flee from him
to him, she continues to say with Guerric the
Abbot; from the Judge to the Redeemer, from
the tribunal to the cross.f The Virgin herself
revealed to St. Bridget that she closed the eyes
of her Son, when he was taken down from the
cross, but she could not close his arms: "Ejus
brachia flectere non potui." Jesus Christ giv
ing us to understand by this, that he desired to
remain with open arms to receive all penitent
sinners who return to him. Oh world, contin
ues Mary, behold, then, thy time is the time of
levers: "Et ecce, tempus tuum, tempus aman
din."! Now that ray Son, oh world, has died
to save thee, this is no longer for thee a time of
fear, but of love: a time to love him who has de
sired to suffer so much in order to show thee the
love he bore thee. Therefore, says St. Bernard,
is the heart of Jesus wounded that, through the

* Isa. xlvi

t Ab ipso fnge ad ipsnm, a Judice ad redemptorem, a tribunal! ad

584 GLOK1ES OF MAKY.

visible wound, the invisible wound of love may
be seen.* If then, concludes Mary, in the
words of the Abbot of Celles, my Son had wish
ed his side to be opened that he might give thee
his heart,f it is right, oh man, that thou shouldst
give him thy heart. And if you wish, oh
children of Mary, to find a place in the heart of
Jesus without fear of being cast out, go, says
Ubertino of Casale, go with Mary, for she will
obtain grace for you;J and in the following ex
ample we have a beautiful proof of this.

EXAMPLE.

The Disciple relates^ that there was once a
poor sinner who, among other crimes, had kill
ed his father and a brother, and therefore be
came a fugitive. Happening to hear one day
during Lent, a sermon upon the divine mercy,
he went to the preacher himself to make his con
fession. The confessor having heard his crimes,
sent him to an altar of the sorrowful mother to
pray that she might obtain for him compunction
and pardon of his sins. The sinner obeyed, and
began to pray, when behold, suddenly over
powered by contrition, he falls down dead. On
the following day when the priest recommended
to the people to pray for the deceased, a white
dove appeared in the church and let fall a card at

the feet of the priest. He took it up, and found
these words written on it: "The soul of the
dead, when it left the body, immediately
went to paradise; and do you continue to praacb
the infinite mercy of God."

PRAYER.

Oh afflicted Virgin! oh soul, great in virtues
and great also in sorrows! for both arise from
that great fire of love thou hast for God; thou
"whose heart can love nothing but God; ah moth
er, have pity on me, for I have not loved God, and
I have so much offended him. Thy sorrows
give me great confidence to hope for pardon.
But this is not enough; I wish to love my
Lord, and who can better obtain this for me
than thou thou who art the mother of fair
love? Ah Mary, thou dost console all, comfort
me also. Amen.

ON THE SEVENTH DOLOR.

THE BURIAL OF THE BODY OF JESUS.

WHEN a mother is by the side of a suffering
and dying child, she no doubt then feels and suf
fers all his pains; but when the afflicted child is
really dead and about to be buried, and the sor
rowful mother takes her last leave of him, oh
God ! the thought that she is to see him no more is
a sorrow that exceeds all other sorrows. Behold,

586 GLORIES OF MARY.

the last sword of sorrow which we are to consicU
er, when Mary, after being present at the death
of her Son upon the cross, after having embrao
ed his lifeless body, was finally to leave him in
the sepulchre, never more to enjoy his beloved
presence.

But that we may better understand this last
dolor, let us return to Calvary, again to look
upon the afflicted mother, who still holds, clasped
in her arms, the lifeless body of her Son. Oh my
Son, she seems then to continue to say in the
words of Job, my Son, thou art changed to be
cruel towards me: "Mutatus es mihi in crude-
lem."* Yes, for all thy beauty, grace, virtue,
and loveliness, all the signs of special love thou
hast shown me, the peculiar favors thou hast
bestowed on me, are all changed into so many
darts of sorrow, which the more they have in
flamed my love for thee, so much the more cause
me cruelly to feel the pain of having lost thee.
Ah, my beloved Son, in losing thee I have lost
all. Thus St. Bernard speaks in her name: Oh
truly begotten of God, thou wast to me a father,
a son, a spouse; thou wast my life! Now I am
deprived of my father, my spouse, and my Son,
for with my Son whom I have lost, I lose all
things, f

Thus Mary, clinging to her Son, was dissolved
in grief; but those holy disciples, fearing lest
this poor mother would expire there through

agony, went to take the body of her Son from
her arms, to bear it away for burial. Therefore,
with reverential force they took him from her
arms, and having embalmed him, wrapped him
in a linen cloth already prepared, upon which
our Lord wished to leave to the world his image
impressed, as may be seen at the present day in
Turin. And now they bear him to the sepul
chre. The sorrowful funeral train sets forth;
the disciples place him on their shoulders;
hosts of angels from heaven accompany him;
those holy women follow him; and the afflicted
mother follows in their company her Son to the
grave. When they had reached the appointed
place, how gladly would Mary have buried her
self there alive with her Son! "Oh how will
ingly," said the Virgin to St. Bridget, "would I
have remained there alive with my Son, if it had
been his will!"* But since this was not the
divine will, the authors relate that she herself
accompanied the sacred body of Jesus into the
sepulchre, where, as Baronius narrates, they
deposited the nails and the crown of thorns.
In raising the stone to close the sepulchre, the
disciples of the Saviour had to turn to the
Virgin, and say to her: Now, oh Lady, we must
close the sepulchre; have patience, look upon
thy Son, and take leave of him for the last time.
Then, oh my beloved Son, must the afflicted
mother have said, then shall I see thee no more?
Receive then, this last time that I look upon

thee, receive the last farewell from me tny deaf
mother, and receive my heart which I leave bur
ied with thee. The Virgin, says St. Fulgentius,
earnestly desired that her soul should be buried
with the body of Christ.* And Mary herself
made this revelation to St, Bridget: "I can
truly say, that at the burial of my Son, one
sepulchre contained as it were two hearts."f

Finally, they take the stone and close up in
the holy sepulchre the body of Jesus, that
great treasure, greater than any in heaven and
on earth. And here let us remark, that Mary
left her heart buried with Jesus, because Jesus
was all her treasure: "Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also." J And where
shall we keep our hearts buried ? With creat
ures ? In the mire ? And why not with Jesus,
who, although he has ascended to heaven, has
wished to remain, not dead but alive, in the
most holy sacrament of the altar, precisely in
order that he may have with him and possess
our hearts ? But let us return to Mary. Before
quitting the sepulchre, according to St. Bonaven-
ture, she blessed that sacred stone, saying: Oh
happy stone, that doth now inclose that body
which was contained nine months in my womb,
I bless thee, and envy thee; I leave thee to
guard my Son for me, who is my only good, my
only love. And then turning to the eternal

Father, she said: Oh Father, to thee I recom
mend him, who is thy Son and mine; and thus
bidding a last farewell to her Son, and to the
sepulchre, she returned to her own house. This
poor mother went away so afflicted and sad, ac
cording to St. Bernard, that she moved many to
tears even against their will: "Multos etiam in-
vitos ad lacrymas provocabat;" so that wherever
she passed, all wept who met her: "Omnes
plorabant qui obviabant ei," and could not re-
strain their tears. And he adds, that those holy
disciples, and the women who accompanied
her, mourned for her even more than for their
Lord*

St. Bonaventure says, that her two sis
ters covered her with a mourning cloak: The sis
ters of our Lady wrapped her in a veil as a wid
ow, covering as it were her whole countenance.f
And he also says, that passing, on her return,
before the cross, still wet with the blood of her
Jesus, she was the first to adore it : Oh holy
cross, she exclaimed, I kiss thee arid adore thee;
for thou art no longer an infamous wood, but a
throne of love, and an altar of mercy, consecrated
by the blood of the divine Lamb, who has been
sacrificed upon thee, for the salvation of the world.
She then leaves the cross and returns to her
house ; there the afflicted mother casts her eyes
around, and no longer sees her Jesus ; but instead

of the presence of her dear Son, all the memorials
of his holy life and cruel death are hefore her.
There she is reminded of the embraces she gave
her Son in the stable of Bethlehem, of the conver
sations held with him for so many years in the shop
of Nazareth: she is reminded of their mutual af
fection, of his loving looks, of the words of eternal
life that came forth from that divine mouth.
And then comes before her the fatal scene of
that very day ; she sees those nails, those thorns,
that lacerated flesh of her Son, those deep
wounds, those uncovered bones, that open mouth,
those closed eyes. Alas ! what a night of sor
row was that night for Mary ! The sorrowful
mother turned to St. John, and said mournfully:
Ah, John, where is thy master? Then she asked
of Magdalen: Daughter, tell me where is thy
beloved ? Oh God ! who has taken him from
us ? Mary weeps, and all those who are with her
weep. And thou, oh my soul, dost thou not weep!
Ah, turn to Mary, and say to her with St.
Bonaventure : Let me, oh my Lady, let me
weep ; thou art innocent, I am guilty.* At
least entreat her to permit thee to weep with her:
"Fac ut tecum lugeam." She weeps for love,
and thou dost weep through sorrow for thy gins.
And thus weeping, thou mayest have the hap
py lot of him of whom we read in the following
example.

* Sine, Dom**" niea, sine me flere; tu hmocena es, ego aum reu*

GLORIES OF MAKY. 591

EXAMPLE.

Father Engelgrave relates,* that a certain re
ligious was so tormented by scruples, that some
times he was almost driven to despair, but hav
ing great devotion to Mary, the mother of sor-
sows, he had recourse to her in the agony of his
spirit, and was much comforted by contemplat
ing her dolors. Death came, and the devil
tormented him more than ever with scruples,
and tempted him to despair. When, behold
our merciful mother, seeing her poor son so afflict
ed, appeared to him, and said to him: "And
why, oh my son, art thou so overcome with sor
row, thou who hast so often consoled me by thy
compassion for my sorrows ?f Be comforted,"
she said to him; " Jesus sends me to thee to con
sole thee; be comforted, rejoice, and come with
me to paradise." And at these words the de
vout religious tranquilly expired, full of conso
lation and confidence.

PKAYEK.

My afflicted mother, I will not leave thee alone
to weep; no, I wish to keep thee company with
my tears. This grace I ask of thee to-day: ob
tain for me a continual remembrance of the
passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender
devotion to them, that all the remaining days of
my life may be spent in weeping for thy sorrows,
oh my mother, and for those of my Redeemer,

* Dom infra oct Nat. s. 2.

+ Et t u , fill mi, cur mcerore conficeiis, <iui in monoM meo totto m

soaaolatus es?

592 GLORIES OP MARY.

I hope that these dolors will give me the con*
fidence and strength not to despair at the hour
of my death, at the sight of the offences I have
committed against my Lord. By these must I
obtain pardon, perseverance, paradise, where I
hope to rejoice with thee, and sing the infinite
mercy of my God through all eternity: thus I
hope, thus may it be. Arnen, amen.

Whoever wishes to practise the devotion of
reciting the chaplet of the dolors of Mary, will
fin d it at the end of the book. I composed thja
many years since, and insert it anew here for the
convenience of the servants of Mary, whom I
pray in their charity to recommend me to her
when they meditate upon her dolors.

Oh Lady, who dost ravish the heart of men
with thy sweetness, hast thou not ravished mine?
Oh, ravisher of hearts, when wilt thou restore to
me my heart? Do w in it as with thine own, and
place it in the side of thy Son. Then I shall
possess what I hope for, because thou art our
hope.*

OF THE VIRTUES OF THE MOST HOLY
MARY.

St. Augustine says, that in order to obtain
more certainly and abundantly the favors of the

saints, it is necessary to imitate them, for when
they see us practising the virtues which
they practised, then they are more moved to
pray for us. The queen of saints, and our first
advocate, Mary, after she has rescued a soul
from the grasp of Lucifer, and has united her
to God, wishes her to begin to imitate her ex
ample, otherwise she will not be able to enrich
her, as she would wish, with her graces, seeing
her so opposed to her in conduct. Therefore
Mary calls those blessed who diligently imitate
her life; "Now, therefore, children, hear me ;
blessed are they that keep my ways."* He who
loves, is like, or seeks to make himself like, the
person beloved, according to the celebrated prov
erb: Love either finds or makes like: "Amor aut
pares invenit aut facit." Hence St. Jerome tells
us, that if we love Mary, we must seek to imitate
her, for this is the greatest honor we can pay hcr.f
Richard says, those are and may call themselves
true children of Mary, who strive to imitate her
life: "Filii Mariae imitatores ejus." Let the
child then endeavor, concludes St. Bernard, to
imitate the mother, if he desires her favor; for
when Mary sees that he honors her as a mother
she will treat and favor him as a child.

Although there is little recorded in the Gos
pels of the virtues of Mary in particular, yet,
when they tell us that she was full of grace, it

is given us to understand that she had all the
virtues, and all in the heroic degree. So much
BO, that, as St. Thomas says, where as the other
saints have excelled, each in some one particu
lar virtue, the blessed Virgin has excelled in all,
and in all the virtues has been given us for an
example.* And St. Ambrose also says: Such
was Mary, that her life alone is the example for
all.f And he afterwards adds: Let the virginity
and life of Mary be to you as an image, in which
the form of virtue shines forth. From thence
obtain the model of your life . . . what you
should correct, what avoid, what retain. J And
because, as the holy Fathers teach, humility is
the foundation of all the virtues, let us in the
first place consider how great was the humility
of the mother of God.

SECTION I.

OF THE HUMILITY OF MARY,

Humility, says St. Bernard, is the foundation
and guardian of the virtues ; and with reason,
for without humility a soul can possess no other
virtue. Let her possess all the virtues, they

will all depart when humility departs. On the
other hand, said St. Francis of Sales, in a letter
to St. Jane de Chantal, God so loves humility
that he instantly hastens to the soul in which
he sees it.* This virtue, so lovely and so nec
essary, was unknown in the world; but the Son
of God himself came on earth to teach it by his
example, and he desired that in this we should
especially strive to imitate him: "Learn of me,
because I am meek and humble of heart." f
And Mary, as she was the first and most perfect
disciple of Jesus Christ in all the virtues, was so
in that of humility, by which she merited to be
exalted above all creatures. It was revealed to
St. Matilda that the first virtue which the
blessed mother especially practised from child
hood, was humility.J

The first act of humility of heart is to have an
humble opinion of ourselves; and Mary always
thought so lowly of herself, as was revealed to
the same St. Matilda, that although she saw so
many more graces bestowed upon her than upon
others, she preferred all others before herself.
Rupert the Abbot, explaining that passage,
"Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my
spouse .... with one hair of thy neck," | says,

that this hair of the neck of the spouse was pre
cisely that humble opinion which Mary had of
herself, with which she wounded the heart of
God.* Not that the holy Virgin esteemed her
self a sinner, for humility is truth, as St.
Theresa says, and Mary knew that she had never
offended God; nor that she did not confess hav
ing received greater graces from God than any
other creature, for an humble heart always ac
knowledges the special favors of the Lord, that
it may humble itself the more; but the divine
mother, by the greater light she had to see the
infinite greatness and goodness of her God, saw
still more her own littleness, and therefore more
than all others did she humiliate herself, and
say with the spouse of the Canticles: "Do not
consider that I am brown because the sun hath
altered my color." f Approaching him, I find
myself black, as St. Bernard explains it: "Ap-
propinquans illi me nigrarn invenio."J Yes,
adds St. Bernardine, for the Virgin had always
present before her eyes the divine majesty, and
her own nothiiigness. As a beggar, when she
is clothed with a costly garment which has been
given her, is not made proud by it, but humbles
herself more before the giver, because she is re-

ininded then more of her poverty; thus, Mary,
the more she saw herself enriched, the more
humble she became, remembering that all was the
gift of God; whence she herself said to St. Eliza
beth, a Benedictine nun: "Know for certain that
I esteemed myself most abject, and unworthy of
the grace of God." * And therefore, says St.
Bernardine, no creature in the world has been
more exalted, because no creature has ever
humbled herself more than Mary.f X

Moreover, it is an act of humility to conceal
the gifts of heaven. Mary wished to conceal
from St. Joseph the grace of having been made
the mother of God, although it seemed necessary
to make it known to him, in order, at least, to re
move from the mind of her poor spouse the sus
picions he might have of her virtue, when he
saw her pregnant; or at least his perplexity, for
in fact St. Joseph, on the one side, unwilling to
doubt the chastity of Mary, and, on the other,
ignorant of the mystery, in order to free himself
from perplexity, was minded to put her away
privately: "Voluit occulte dimittere eam."J
And if the angel had not revealed to him that
his spouse was pregnant by the operation of the
Holy Spirit, he would really have left her.
Moreover, an humble soul also refuses praise,
and gives it all to God. Behold, Mary is dis-

fcurbed at hearing herself praised by St. Gabriel
And when St. Elizabeth said to her, "Blessed art
thou among women . . . and whence is this to
me, that the mother of my Lord should come to
me . . . .Blessed art thou that hast believ
ed, &c.,"* Mary, referring all these praises to
God, answered with that humble Canticle: My
soul doth magnify the Lord: "Magnificat anima
mea Dorainum," as if she had said: You praise
me, oh Elizabeth, but I praise the Lord, to whom
alone honor is due; you wonder that I come to
you, and I wonder at the divine goodness in.
which alone my spirit exults. And my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour: "Et exultavit
spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo." You praise
me because I have believed; I praise my God,
because he has wished to exalt my nothingness;
because he hath regarded the humility of his
handmaid: "Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae
suae." Hence Mary said to St. Bridget: "Why
did I humble myself so far, or why have I mer
ited so much grace, unless because I thought
and knew that of and from myself I was nothing,
and had nothing? therefore I would have no
praise for myself, but only for the Giver and
Oeator."f Wherefore, speaking of the humility
of Mary, St. Augustine says: Oh truly blessed

hnmility, which has brought forth God to men,
opened paradise, and liberated souls from hell!*
It is also a part of humility to save others;
and Mary did not refuse to go and serve Eliza
beth for three months. Wherefore St. Bernard
has said: Elizabeth wondered that Mary should
come to visit her, but she should wonder still
more that she did not come to be ministered unto,
but to minister.f The humble retire and choose
the lowest place; and therefore, as St. Bernard
remarks, Mary, when her Son was preaching in
a certain house, as St. Matthew relates, J wished
to speak with him, but would not enter the
house unbidden. Therefore, when she was in
the "upper room" with the apostles, she wished
to take the lowest place, as St. Luke has related:
"All these were persevering with one mind in
prayer, with the woman and Mary the mother
of Jesus.") Not that St. Luke did not know
the merit of the divine mother, on account of
which he should have given her the first place;
but because she had taken the lowest, after the
apostles and the other women, therefore St.
Luke described all, as a certain author remarks,

just in the order of their places. Hence St Ber
nard says: Justly has the last become first, who,
when she was first of all, became last.* Final
ly, the humble love contempt; therefore we do
not find that Mary appeared in Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday, when her Son was received with
BO much honor by the people; but, on the other
hand, at the time of the death of her Son, she
did not shrink from appearing in public on Cal
vary, through fear of the disgrace of being
known as the mother of one who was condemn
ed as a criminal to die by an infamous death.
Therefore she said to St Bridget: "What more
contemptible than to be called a fool, to be in
want of all things, to believe one s self the most
unworthy of all? Such, oh daughter, was my
humility, this was my joy, this my entire will,
with which I thought of nothing but to please
my Son."f ^

The venerable sister Paula of Foligno was
given to understand in an ecstasy how great was
the humility of the holy Virgin. In relating
what she had seen to her confessor, she said,
scarcely able to utter the words through aston
ishment: "Oh the humility of the blessed Virgin!
Oh father! oh the humility of our blessed
Lady! In the world there is no humility, not even

the lowest degree of humility, to be compared
with the humility of Mary." And our Lord, at
another time, showed St. Bridget two females,
one all pomp and vanity: This one," he said,
"is Pride; b lt the other whom you see with her
head bent down, respectful- to all, having God
alone in her mind, and having no esteem for her
self, is Humility, arid is called Mary."* By
this God wished to make known to us that his
blessed mother was so humble that she was hu
mility itself.

It is not to be doubted, as St. Gregory of Nyssa
says, that for our nature, corrupted by sin, there
is perhaps no virtue more difficult to practise than
humility. But there is no escape ; we can never
be true children of Mary if we are not humble.
If, says St. Bernard, you cnmiot imitate the
virginity, imitate the humility of the humble
Virgin. f She abhors the proud, she invites none
to come to her but the humble : Whosoever is a
little one, let him come to me : " Si quis est par-
vulus, veniat ad me." Mary, says Richard, pro
tects us under the mantle of humility : " Maria
protegit nos sub pallio humilitatis." The mother
of God herself explained this to St. Bridget, say
ing : "Come, then, oh my daughters, and hide
thyself under my mantle; this mantle is my hu-
mility."J And she then added, that the con-

templation of her humility was a good mantl^
that keeps us warm ; but, as she afterwards said:
"The mantle only warms him who wears it, not
only in thought but in fact ; thus my humility
does not profit unless every one strives to imitate
it. Therefore, my daughter," she concludes,
"clothe thyself with this humility."* Oh, how
dear to Mary is the humble soul! St. Bernard
writes: The Virgin recognizes and loves those who
love her, and she is near to all who invoke her,
especially to those whom she sees like herself in
chastity and humility, f Wherefore the saint the
exhorts all those who love Mary, to be humble :
Emulate this virtue if you love Mary.J Marino,
or Maryino d Alberto, of the Society of Jesus,
through love of the Virgin, was accustomed to
sweep the house and collect the filth. The divine
mother once appeared to him, as Father Nierem-
bergh relates in his Life, and as if thanking him,
gaid : "How dear to me is this humble action
done for love of me !" Then, oh my queen, I shall
never be a true child of thine, if I am not humble.
But do you not see that my sins, after having
rendered me ungrateful to my Lord, have also
made me proud ? Oh, my mother, cure me; by
thy merits obtain for me that I may be humble,
and thus become a child of thine. Amen.

St. ANSELM says, that where there is the
greatest purity, there is the greatest charity:
"Ubi major puritas, ibi major charitas." The
purer and more emptied of self is a heart, the
more it will be filled with charity towards God.
Most holy Mary, because she was all humility,
and entirely emptied of self, was entirely filled
with the divine love, so that she surpassed all
men and all angels in love to God, as St. Ber-
nardine teaches.* Therefore St. Francis of
Sales has justly called her: The queen of love.
The Lord indeed has given to men the precept
to love him with their whole heart: "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart;" f
but, as St. Thomas declares, this precept will
never be perfectly fulfilled by men on this earth,
but in heaven.J And here the blessed Albertus
Magnus remarks, that in a certain sense, it
would be unbecoming for God to give a com
mandment which none could perfectly fulfil, if

the divine mother had not perfectly fulfilled it;
These are the words of Albertus: Either some
one fulfils this precept or no one; if any one, it
is the most blessed Virgin.* And this is con
firmed by Richard of St. Victor, who says: The
mother of our Emmanuel was perfect in all vir
tues. Who has ever fulfilled as she did that
first commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with thy whole heart?" In her the
divine love was so ardent, that there could be
no defect of any-kind in her.f Divine love, says
St. Bernard, so penetrated and pervaded the
soul of Mary, that no part was left untouched
by it, so that she loved with her whole heart,
her whole soul, and her whole strength, and was
full of grace. J Wherefore Mary might well
have said: My beloved has given himself wholly
to me, and I have given myself wholly to him:
My beloved to me, and I to him: "Dilectus
meus mihi, et ego illi." Ah, says Richard,
well might even the seraphim descend from

God, who is love: "Deus charitas est,"f came
on earth to kindle in all men the flames of his
holy love; but he inflamed no heart so much as
,the heart of his mother, who, being entirely
pure from every earthly affection, was perfectly
ready to be enkindled by this blessed flame.
Thus St. Jerome teaches.J Hence the heart of
Mary became all fire and flames, as we read of
her in the sacred Canticles: The lamps thereof
are fire and flames: " Lampades ejus, lampades
ignis, atque flammarum." Fire burning within,
through love, as St. Anselm explains,] and flames
shining forth upon all, by the practice of virtue.
Mary, therefore, when she bore Jesus in her
arms, might indeed have called herself: Fire
carrying fire: "Ignis gestans ignem," more prop
erly than a certain woman who was carrying
fire in her hand was so called by Hippocrates.
Yes, for St. Ildephonsussaid: As fire heats iron,
the Holy Spirit so wholly inflamed Mary that
nothing was seen in her but the flame of the
Holy Ghost, nothing was felt but the fire of the
love of God.T St. Thomas of Villanova says

that the bush which Moses saw entirely in flames
without being consumed, was really a symbol
of the heart of the Virgin. Wherefore with
reason, as St. Bernard says, was she seen by St.
John clothed with the sun: And there appeared
a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with
the sun: "Et signum apparuit in coelo, mulier
amicta sole."* For, says the saint, she was so
united to God by love that it seems as if no creat
ure could be more united to him. Mary, then, is
justly described as clothed with the sun, for she
has penetrated to an incredible depth the abys*
of divine wisdom, so that, as far as it is per
mitted to a creature not personally united with
God, she appears immersed in that inaccessible
light.f *

Therefore St. Bonaventure asserts, that the
holy Virgin was never tempted by the spirits of
hell: For as flies, he says, are driven away by a
great fire, so from the heart of Mary, which
was one flame of love, the devils fled, and did
not even dare to approach her.J And Richard
also says: The Virgin was terrible to the princes
of darkness, so that they did not presume to ap
proach and tempt her, for the flame of charity

deterred them.* Mary herself revealed to St.
Bridget, that in this world she had no other
thought, no other desire, no other joy, than God:
I thought of nothing but God; nothing pleased
me but God: "Nihil nisi Deum cogitabam, nulla
mihi nisi Deus placuerunt." So that her blessed
soul being, as it were, on this earth in a contin-
ual contemplation of God, the acts of love she
made were innumerable; as Father Suarez has
declared: The acts of perfect love which the
blessed Virgin made in this life were innumer.
able, for she passed almost her whole life in
contemplation, and was very frequently repeat
ing an act of love.f But Bernard de Bustis
pleases me more when he says, that Mary did
not so much repeat the acts of love in order, as
other saints do, but, by a singular privilege, al
ways actually loved God with one continued
act.J Like the royal eagle she kept her eyes al
ways fixed upon the divine Sun, so that, as St.
Peter Damian says, neither did the actions of life
prevent her from loving, nor love prevent her
from acting. Thus, says St. Germanus, Mary

was prefigured by the altar of propitiation on
which the fire was never extinguished by day of
by night.

Neither did sleep interrupt the love of Mary
for her God. For if such a privilege was given
to our first parents in the state of innocence, as
St. Augustine asserts, saying: Their dreama
when sleeping were as happy as their life when
waking: "Tarn f elicia erant somnia dormientium,
quam vita vigilantium,"* it certainly could not
be denied to the divine mother, as Suarez and
Rupert the Abbot believe, with St. Bernardine
and St. Ambrose, who has written concerning
Mary: While her body rested, her soul watched:
"Cum quiesceret corpus, vigilaret animus." f
Thus were verified in her the words of the wise
man: Her lamp shall not be put out in the
night: "Non cxtingueturinnocte lucernaejus." J
Yes, for while her blessed bod}% with a light
sleep, took its needed rest, her soul, says St.
Bernardine, freely rose to God, so at that time
her contemplation was more perfect than is that
of any other person when awake. Therefore
could she well say with the spouse in the Can
ticles: I sleep and my heart watcheth: "Ego
dormio et cor meum vigilat." |j Happy in sleep
as in waking: "Tarn felix dormiendo, quam
vigilando," as Suarez says. In a word, St. Ber-

nardine asserts, that Mary, while she lived on
earth, was continually loving God: "Hens Vir-
ginis in ardore dilectionis continue tenebatur."*
And he adds further, that she never did any
thing that she did not know was pleasing to
God; and that she loved him as much as she
knew he ought to be loved. \ Hence, according
to blessed Albertus Magnus, it may be said that
Mary was filled with so great charity that a
greater was not possible in any pure creature on
this earth. J For this reason St. Thomas of
Villanova has said, that the Virgin, by her ar
dent charity, was made so beautiful and so en
amored her God, that captivated as it were, by
love of her, he descended into her womb to be
come man. Wherefore St. Bernardine ex<
claims: Behold a Virgin who by her virtue has
wounded and taken captive the heart of God.|

But since Mary loves her God so much, she
certainly requires from her servants nothing
else so much as that they should love God as

much as they can. And precisely this she
to the blessed Angela de Foligno one day after
communion : "Angela, may you be blessed by
my Son; seek to love him as much as you can."
And the blessed Virgin herself said to St. Brid
get: Daughter, if you wish to bind me to you, love
my Son; "Si vis me tecum devincire, ama filium
meum." Mary desires nothing more than to see
her beloved, who is God, loved by all. ISTova-
rino asks why the holy Virgin, with the spouse
of the Canticles, begged the angels to make
known to her Lord the great love she bore him,
saying : "I ad jure you, oh daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I
languish Avith love."* Did not God know how
much she loved him ? Why does she desire to
show the wound to her beloved who gave the
wound ? "Cur vulnus ostendi quserit dilecto qui
vulnus fecit ?" The same author answers, that
the divine mother did not wish by this to make
known her love to God, but to us ; that, as she
was wounded, she might be able to wound us
also with divine love : "Ut vulnerata vulneret."f
And because she was wholly inflamed with the
love of God, she inflames all those who love and
approach her, and renders them like herself.J
For this reason St. Catharine of Sienna called
Mary : The bearer of the flame of divine love

"Portatrix ignis." If we also wish to burn with
this blessed flame, let us always endeavor to draw
near to our mother with prayers and affections.
Oh queen of love, Mary, the most lovely, tha
most beloved, and the most loving of all creat
ures, as St. Francis de Sales said to thee: Ah,
my mother, thou wert always wholly inflamed
with love to God; ah, deign to bestow on me at
least one spark of it. Thou G. dst pray thy Son
for that family whose wine had failed: They
have no wine: "Vinum non habent," and wilt
thou not pray for us, who are wanting in love
to God, whom we are under such obligations to
love? Say to Jesus: They have no love: "Amor-
em non habent." Do thou obtain for us this
love. We ask of thee no other favor than this.
Oh mother, by the great love thou hast for Je-
BUS, graciously hear us and pray for us. Amen.

SECTION III.

OP THE CHARITY OF MARY FOR HER NEIGHBOR.

LOVE to God and our neighbor is commanded
by the same precept: "And this commandment
we have from God, that he who loyeth God, love
also his neighbor."* And St. Thomas gives
it as a reason for this, that he who loves God,
loves all things which God loves. St. Catherine

of Genoa one day said to God: "Oh Lord, it ii
thy will that I love my neighbor, and I can love
none but thee." God answered her in these
words: "He who loves me, loves all things loved
by me." But as there never has been and never
will be one who loves God more than Mary; so
there never has been and never will be one who
loves his neighbor more than Mary. Cornelius
a Lapide, remarking on these words: "King Sol
omon hath made him a litter of the wood of Li-
banus . . . the midst he covered with charity for
the daughters of Jerusalem,"* says, that this lit
ter was the womb of Mary, in which the incar
nate Word dwelt, filling the mother with char
ity, that she might succor all who had recourse
to her.f Mary was so full of charity when she
was on earth, that she assisted unasked, those
who were in need, just as she did at the mar
riage of Cana, when she told her Son of the
trouble of the family: They have no wine: "Vin-
ura non habent,"J and begged him to give them
wine by a miracle. Oh! how she hastened to
the relief of her neighbor, when she went to the
house of Elizabeth on an errand of charity:
She went into the hill country in haste: "Abiit
in montana cum festinatione." She could in
no way show greater charity than by offering

her Son for our salvation; so that St. Bonaven-
ture says: Mary so loved the world as to give
her only-begotten Son.* Therefore St. Anselm
addresses her in these words: Oh, blessed among
women, who dost excel the angels in purity, and
the saints in pity!f Neither does the charity
of Mary for us fail, says St. Bonaventure, now she
is in heaven; but is much increased there. Be
cause now she sees more clearly the miseries of
men.J Hence the saint said: Great was the
mercy of Mary towards the wretched when she
was still an exile on earth; but* it is far greater
now that she is reigning in heaven. And the
angel said to St. Bridget, that there is no one
who prays that does not receive graces through
the charity of theVirgin.|| Miserable should we
be were Mary not to pray for us. Jesus Christ
himself also said to the same saint: "If the
prayers of my mother did not interpose, there
would be no hope of mercy. "^

Blessed is he, says the divine mother, who
hears my teachings and considers my charity, in
order to practise it towards others in imitation of
me: "Blessed is the man that heareth me, and

that watch eth daily at my gates, and waiteth at
the posts of my doors."* St. Gregory ISTazianzen
says, that there is nothing by which we may
more surely gain the love of Mary, than by the
practice of charity towards our neighbor.}-
Hence, as God commands us, saying, "Be ye
merciful, as your Father also is merciful;" J so
Mary appears to say to all her children: Be ye
merciful, as your mother also is merciful. It is
certain that God and Mary will show mercy to
us, according to the charity we practise towards
our neighbor. "Give, and it shall be given to
you." "For with the same measure that you
ehall mete withal, it shall be measured to you
again."] St. Methodius said: Give to the poor
and receive paradise: "Da pauperi et accipe Pa-
radisum:" for, according to the apostle, charity
towards our neighbor renders us happy in this
life and the next: "But piety is profitable to all
things, having promise of the life that now is,
and of that which is to come." 1 !" St. John Chry-
sostom, remarking on the words of Proverbs,
He that hath mercy on the poor, lendeth to the

Lord,"* says, that he who assists the needy,
makes God his debtor.f Oh mother of mercy,
thou art full of charity for all. Do not forget
my miseries. Thou dost even now see them. Re
commend me to that God who denies thee noth
ing . Obtain for me the grace of being able to
imitate thee in holy charity towards God and
towards my neighbor. Amen.**

BECTIOK IV.

OP THE FAITH OF MARY.

As the blessed Virgin is the mother of love
and of hope, thus, also, is she the mother of
faith. "I am the mother of fair love, and of
fear, and knowledge, and of holy hope." { And
justly, says St. Irenaeus, since Mary repaired by
her faith that loss which Eve caused by her in-
credulity.g Eve, Tertullian also says, because
she chose to believe the serpent rather than the
Word of God, brought death into the world,
but our queen, believing the words of the angel,
that she, remaining a virgin, was to become the
mother of the Lord, brought salvation to the
world.] For St. Augustine says that Mary,
giving her consent to the incarnation of the
Word, by means of her faith opened paradise to

men.* Also Richard, commenting on tne wordg
of St. Paul: "For the unbelieving husband is
sanctified by the believing wife," f says: This
is the believing woman by whose faith the un
believing Adam and all his posterity are saved. J
Hence, on account of her faith, Elizabeth pro
nounced the Virgin blessed: Blessed art thou
that hast believed, because those things shall be
accomplished in thee that were spoken by the
Lord. And St. Augustine added: Mary is
more blessed by receiving the faith of Christ
than by conceiving the flesh of Christ.]

Father Suarez says that the holy Virgin had
more faith than all men and all the angels.
She saw her Son in the stable of Bethlehem, and
believed him the Creator of the world. She saw
him flying from Herod, and yet believed that
he was the King of kings. She saw him born,
and believed him to be eternal. She saw him
poor and in need of food, and believed him to
be Lord of the universe, laid on straw, and she
believed him omnipotent. She observed that
he did not speak, and she believed him to be the
infinite Wisdom. She heard him weeping, and
she believed him to be the joy of paradise.

Finally, she saw him in death, despised and
crucified, but although the faith of others might
have wavered, Mary remained firm in th belief
that he was God. St. Antoninus says, remark
ing on the words: There stood by the cross of
Jesus his mother: "Stabat juxta crucem Jesu
mater ejus," Mary stood supported by her
faith, which she retained firm in the divinity of
Christ.* And it is for this reason, says the
saint, that in the office of Tenebrse, only one
candle is left lighted. St. Leo, when treating
of this subject, applies to the Virgin this pas
sage of Proverbs: "Her lamp shall not be put
out in the night." f On the words of Isaias,
"I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the
Gentiles, there is not a man with me," J St.
Thomas remarks: He says a man, on account of
the Virgin, in whom faith never failed.
Whence the blessed Albertus Magnus says, that
Mary practised then a most perfect faith. She
had faith in a most excellent degree; who, even
when the disciples were doubting, did not doubt.
Mary, therefore, by her great faith merited to
become the light of all the faithful, as St.
Methodius calls her: "Fidelium fax." And by
St. Cyril of Alexandria: The queen of the true
faith: "Sceptrum orthodoxae fidei." And the

holy Church herself attributes to the Virgin, by
the merit of her faith, the destruction of all
heresies: "Rejoice, oh Virgin Mary, for thou
alone hast destroyed all heresies throughout the
world."* St. Thomas of Villanova also says,
explaining the words of the Holy Spirit, "Thou
hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse
. . . with one of thy eyes," f that the eyes
signify faith, by which the Virgin gave the
greatest pleasure to the Son of God.J ^

St. Ildephonsus exhorts us to imitate the faith
of Mary: "Imitamini signaculum fidei Mariae."
But how are we to imitate this faith of Mary?
Faith is at the same time a gift and a virtue. It
is a gift of God, in so far as it is a light which
God infuses into the soul, and it is also a virtue
in so far as it is exercised by the soul. Hence
faith is given us not only to serve as a rule of
belief, but also of action. Therefore St. Gregory
eays: He truly believes who, by his works,
practises what he believes. And St. Augustine:
Thou sayest," I believe," do what you say, and
it is faith. || And this is to have a lively faith,
namely, to live according to our belief. "My just

man livetb by faith."* It was thus the blessed
Virgin lived, very differently from those who do
not live according to what they believe, whose
faith is dead, as St. James says: Faith without
good works is dead: " Fide sine operibus mortua
est."f Diogenes went about seeking a man upon
earth: "Hominem quaero;" but God seems seek
ing a Christian among the many faithful: "Chris-
tianum qusero." For very few are they who have
the works, the greater part have only the namej
but to these should be said what Alexander said
to that cowardly soldier who was also named
Alexander; Change either your name or your con
duct: "Aut nomeu, aut mores muta." But, as
Father Avila used to say: It would be better if
these miserable creatures were put in confinement
as madmen, believing as they do, that a happy
eternity is prepared for him who lives well, and
an unhappy eternity for him who lives ill, and yet
living as if they did not believe this. St. Augus
tine therefore exhorts us to see things with Chris,
tian eyes, that is, to see according to faith: "Ocu-
los Christianorum habete." For St. Theresa was
accustomed to say, that all sins arise from a want
of faith. Let us therefore implore the holy Vir
gin, that by the merit of her faith she may obtain
for us a lively faith. Oh Lady, increase our faith:
Domina adauge nobis fidem.

* Justus autem meus ex fide vidit, Hebr. x. 38. 1 11.10.

620 GLORIES OF MARY.

SECTION V.

OF THE HOPE OF MARY.

FROM faith springs hope, for God enlighten!
us by faith with a knowledge of his goodness
and his promises, that we may raise by hope to
the desire of possessing him. Mary, then, having
the virtue of an extraordinary faith, had also
the virtue of an extraordinary hope, which made
her say with David: "But it is good for me to
adhere to my God, and to put my hope in the
Lord God."* Mary was, indeed, that faithful,
spouse of the Holy Spirit, of whom it was said;
"Who is this that coineth up from the desert,
flowing with delights, leaning on her beloved?"f
For she was always perfectly detached from
affection to the world, which to her appeared a
desert; and placing no confidence either in creat
ures or her own merits, but relying entirely ou
divine grace, in which alone she trusted, she
always advanced in the divine love; and thus
Ailgrin said of her: She ascended from the
desert, that is, from the world, which she de
serted and esteemed such a desert, that she
turned away from it all her affection. Leaning
upon her beloved; for she trusted not in her own
merits, but in the grace of him who bestows
grace.J ^

And the holy Virgin plainly showed how
great was her confidence in God: first, when
she saw the trouble of her holy spouse, Joseph,
because he knew not the mode of her miraculous
pregnancy, and thought of leaving her : But
Joseph .... minded to put her away private
ly : "Joseph autem. . . . voluit occulte dimittere-
earn."* It appeared then necessary, as we have
already said, that she should discover to Joseph
the hidden mystery; but no, she would not her
self reveal the grace she had received; she
thought it better to abandon herself to divine
providence, trusting that God himself would
protect her innocence and her reputation. Cor
nelius a Lapide makes precisely the same remark,
commenting upon these very words of the
Gospel: The blessed Virgin was unwilling to
make known this secret to Joseph, lest she
should seem to boast of her gifts, but resigned
herself in perfect confidence to the care of God,
trusting that he would protect her innocence
and reputation.f Moreover, she showed her
confidence in God, when, as the time for the
birth of Christ approached, she saw herself in
Bethlehem shut out from the lodgings even of the

poor, and obliged to bring forth her So
in a stable. "And she laid him in a manger, be
cause there was no room for him in the inn."*
She did not then utter a single word of complaint,
but abandoning herself to God, trusted that he
would assist her in her need. The divine mother
also showed how much she trusted in the divine
providence, when warned by Joseph that they
were obliged to fly into Egypt, she set out the
same night on so long a journey to a foreign and
unknown country, without preparation, with
out money, without other company than that of
her infant Jesus and her poor spouse: "Who
arose and took the child and his mother by
night, and retired into Egypt."f But much
more did Mary make known her confidence t
when she asked from her Son the favor of the
miracle of wine at the marriage of Cana; for
having said: They have no wine: "Vinum non
habent;" Jesus answered her: Woman, what is
it to thee and to me ? my hour has not yet come."J
But after this answer, by which it seemed
clearly that he refused her request, she, trusting
in the divine goodness, directed the people of
the house to do as the Son should order, because
the grace was secure: Whatsoever he shall say
to you, do ye: "Quodcumque dixerit vobig
raeite." And Jesus Christ did, indeed, order

that the vessels should be filled with water, and
then changed it into wine.

Let us learn then from Mary to trust inGodai
we ought, but principally as to what concerns
our eternal salvation, in which, although our co
operation is necessary, yet we ought to hope
from God alone the grace necessary for obtain
ing it, entirely distrusting our own strength and
saying with the apostle : I can do all things in
him who strengtheneth me : "Omnia possum in
eo qui me confortat."*

SINCE the fall of Adam the flesh being rebell
ious against reason, the virtue of chastity is the
most difficult for men to practise. Of all com-
* Phil. IT. 13. t Eccli. xxiy. U.

624 GLOBIES OF MAKY.

bats, says St. Augustine, those of chastity are
the most severe, for the battle is daily and the vie.
tory rare.* But eternal praise to the Lord who
has given us in Mary a great example of this
virtue. With justice says blessed Albertus
Magnus, is Mary called the Virgin of virgins,
for she being the first who offered her virginity
to God, without the counsel or example of others,
has brought to him all virgins who imitate her.f
As David had already predicted: After her vir
gins shall be brought to the temple of the king:
"Adducentur virgines post earn in templum.
regis."J Without counsel or example; yes, for
St. Bernard exclaims: Oh Virgin, who has
taught thee to please God by virginity, and on
earth to lead the life of an angel ? Ah ! an
swers Sophronius, it is for this God has chosen
this most pure Virgin for his mother, that she
may be an example of chastity to all.|| Hence
St. Ambrose has called Mary the standard-bear
er of chastity : "Quse sigrmm Virgin itatis extulit."
By reason of this her purity the blessed Virgin
was also called by the holy Spirit: Beautiful
as the turtle-dove: Thy cheeks are beautiful as

the turtle-dove s: "Pulchrse sunt gense tnse sicut
turturis."* Mary, says St. Aponius, is a roost
chaste turtle : " Turtur pudicissima Maria." And
therefore she has also been called a lily : As the
lily among the thorns, so is my love among the
daughters: "Sicut lilinm inter spinas, sic arnica
mea inter filias."f St. Denis the Carthusian,
commenting on this passage, says, that she has
been called a lily among thorns because all other
virgins were thorns either to themselves or others;
but the blessed Virgin has never been one to her
self or others. J For by her presence alone she
infused into all, thoughts and affections of purity:
"Intuentiurn corda ad castitatem invitabat."
And this is confirmed by St. Thomas, who says
that the beauty of the blessed Virgin encouraged
chastity in all who beheld her: Pulchritude B.
Virginis intuentes ad castitatem excitabat."]
St. Jerome declares himself of the opinion that
St. Joseph preserved his virginity by the society
of Mary, for the saint thus writes against the
heretic Helvidius, who denied the virginity of
Mary: Thou sayest that Mary did not remain a
virgin; I take it upon myself to maintain more
than that, even that Joseph himself preserved
his virginity through Mary.T A certain author

ays that the blessed Virgin so loved this virtu^
that to preserve it, she would have been ready
to renounce even the dignity of mother of
God. This we may learn from her own answer
to the archangel: "How shall this be done,because
I know not man?"* and from the words she
afterwards added: Be it done to me according
to thy word : "Fiat mihi secundum verbum
tuum ;" signifying by this that she gave her con
cent on the condition of which the angel had
assured her, namely, that she should become a
mother by means of the Holy Spirit alone.

St. Ambrose says: He who has preserved chas
tity is an angel, he who has lost it is a devil. f
According to the words of our Lord: "They shall
be as the angels of God in heaven. "J But the
unchaste become odius to God as the devils.
And St. Remigius said that the greater number
of adults are lost through this vice. The vie,
tory over this vice is rare, as has been said in the
words of St. Augustine at the beginning of this
section; but why is it rare? Because the means
for conquering it are not put in use. The means
are three according to Bellarmine, and the mas
ters of the spiritual life: Fasting, avoiding
dangerous occasions, and prayer: "Jejuniun,
periculorum evitatio, et oratio." By fasting is
meant mortification, particularly of the eyes
and of the appetite. The most holy Mary,

although she was full of divine grace, was so
mortified with her eyes that she kept them al
ways cast down, as St. Epiphanius and St. John
Damascene inform us, and never fixed them on
any one; they say that from her childhood she
vas so modest that she was the wonder of all.
And hence St. Luke remarks, that in going to
visit St. Elizabeth: She went with haste: "Abiit
cum festinatione," that she might not be long seen
in public. Philibert relates with regard to her
food, that it was revealed to a hermit named
Felix, that the infant Mary took milk only once
a day. And St. Gregory of Tours asserts that,
during her whole life, she fasted always: "Nul-
lo tempore Maria non jejunavit;" and St. Bona-
venture adds, that Mary would never have
found so much grace unless she had been tem
perate in food, for grace and gluttony can
not subsist together.* In a word, Mary practis
ed mortification in every thing, so that of her it
was said: My hands dropped with myrrh: "Man-
us mese still averunt myrrh am. "f

The second means is to fly the occasions of sin.
He that is aware of the snares shall be secure:
"Qui autem cavet laqueos, securus erit."J Hence
St. Philip Neri said, that in this warfare cowards
conquer; that is, those who avoid dangerous oc
casions. Mary shunned as much as possible the
sight of men; and therefore St. Luke says that
in her visit to St. Elizabeth, she went with haste

fnto the hill country: "Abiit in montana cum
festinatione." And a certain author remarks
that the Virgin left Elizabeth before the birth
of the Baptist, as we learn from the Gospel it
self, in which it is said that "Mary abode with
her about three months; and she returned to her
own house. Now Elizabeth s full time of being
delivered was come, and she brought forth a
son."* And why did she not wait till his birth?
In order to avoid the conversation and visits
which would follow that event. The third means
is prayer. "And as I knew," said the wise man,
" that I could not otherwise be continent except
God gave it ... .1 went to the Lord and be
sought him."f And the blessed Virgin revealed
to St. Elisabeth, a Benedictine nun, that she had
not acquired any virtue without effort and con
tinual prayer. J St. John Damascene says that
Mary is pure and a lover of purity: "Pura est efc
puritatem amans," and therefore she cannot en
dure the impure. But whoever has recourse to
her will certainly be delivered from this vice by
only pronouncing her name with confidence.
And the venerable John of Avila says that many
temptations against chastity have been over
come solely by devotion to the immaculate Vir
gin. Oh Mary, oh most pure dove, how many are

in hell through the vice of impurity! Oh Lady,
obtain for us that always in our temptations we
may have recourse to thee, and invoke thee, say
ing: Mary, Mary, help us. Amen.

SECTION VII.

OF THE POVERTY OF MARY.

OUR loving Redeemer chose to be poor on
this earth in order to teach us to despise the
goods of this world : "Being rich," says St. Paul,
"he became poor for your sake, that through
his poverty you might be rich."* For this
reason Jesus Christ says to each one who wish
es to be his disciple: "If thou wilt be perfect,
go sell what thou hast and give it to the poor,
and come follow me." f Behold his most per
fect disciple Mary, who indeed imitated his ex
ample. Father Canisius proves that the holy
Virgin could have lived in comfort on the in
heritance left her by her parents, but she was
content to remain poor, reserving to herself a
small portion, and giving the rest in alms to the
temple and to the poor. Many are of opinion
that Mary also made a vow of poverty,;]; and it

is known that she herself said to St. Bridget:
"From the beginning I vowed in my heart
never to possess any thing in the world." *
The gifts received from the holy Magi were cer
tainly not of small value, but St. Bernard attests
that she distributed them all to the poor.f And
we learn that the divine mother immediately
gave to others the presents above mentioned,
from the fact that when she went to the temple
she did not offer the lamb, which was the ob
lation made by those who were able, as we read
in Leviticus: "For a son she shall bring a lamb,"J

but she offered two turtle-doves and two

young pigeons, the oblation of the poor: "And
to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in
the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or
two young pigeons." Mary herself said to St.
Bridget: "All that I had I gave to the poor,
and kept nothing for myself but poor food and
clothing." ||

Through love of poverty she did not disdain
to marry a poor carpenter, like St. Joseph, and
afterwards, as St. Bonaventure relates, to sup-

pert herself by the work of her hands, as sew
ing or spinning. An angel revealed to St.
Bridget concerning Mary, that worldly riches
were in her eyes vile as dirt: "Mundanse divit
velut lutum sibi vilescebat." In a word, she al
ways lived in poverty, and she died in poverty;
for as Metaphrastes and Nicephorus relate, she
left nothing behind her at her death but two
poor garments to two women, who had assisted
her during life.*

He who loves riches, said St. Philip Neri, will
never become a saint; and St. Theresa also said:
It justly follows that he who goes in search of
things lost is also lost. On the other hand, the
same saint said, that this virtue of poverty
is a good that comprises all other goods. I have
said the virtue of poverty which, according to
St. Bernard, does not consist alone in being poor,
but in loving poverty: "Non paupertas, sed amor
paupertatis virtus est." Therefore Jesus Christ
has said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "f Blessed, be
cause they who wish for nothing but God, in
God find every good, and find in poverty their
paradise on earth, as St. Francis found it in say
ing: My God and my all: "Deus meus et omnia."
Let us, then, according to the exhortation of St.
Augustine, love that only good in which is every
good: "Ama unum bonum, in quo sunt omnia

bona." And let us pray our Lord with St. Ig
natius: Give me only thy love together with thy
grace, and I am rich enough.* And when pov
erty afflicts us, let us console ourselves by the
thought that Jesus and his mother have also
been poor like us.f

Ah, my most holy mother, thou hadst in truth
reason to say, that in God was thy joy: And
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, "|
for in this world thou didst not desire nor love
any other good than God. Draw me after thee:
"Trahe me post te." Oh Lady! detach me from
the world, and draw me after thee to love that
one who alone merits to be loved. Amen.

SECTION VIII.

OF THE OBEDIENCE OF MARY.

IT was through the affection which Mary bore
to the virtue of obedience, that when the an
nunciation was made to her by St. Gabriel, she
did not wish to call herself by any other name
than that of handmaid: Behold the handmaid of
the Lord: "Ecce ancilla Domini." Indeed, says
St. Thomas of Villanova, this faithful hand
maid neither in act, word, nor thought, ever dis-

obeyed the Lord, but divested of all self-will, she
always, and in all things, lived obedient to the
divine will.* She herself declared that God
was pleased with her obedience when she said:
He regarded the humility of his handmaid: "Re-
spexit humilitatem ancillffl suae;"f for this is the
humility of a servant, to be always prompt to
obey. St. Augustine says, that the divine mother
remedied by her obedience the evil that Eve had
caused by her disobedience.! The obedience of
Mary was far more perfect than that of all the
other saints, for all men being inclined to evil
through original sin, they all feel difficulty in
doing right; but not so the blessed Virgin; for
as St. Bernardino says: Because she was free
from original sin, there was in her no hindrance
in obeying God, but she was like a wheel read
ily moved at every divine breath ; hence her
only occupation on this earth, as the same saint
expresses it, was to discover and do what was
pleasing to God.J Of her it was said: My soul

melted when he spoke: "Anima mea liquefacta
est, ut dilectus meus locutus est."* Comment
ing on this passage, Richard says that the soul
of Mary was like metal in a state of fusion,
ready to take any form that was pleasing to
God.f

Mary proved indeed the readiness of her
obedience, in the first place, when, in order to
please God, she was willing even to obey the
Roman emperor, and made the journey, fifty
miles, to Bethlehem, in winter, being pregnant,
and so poor that she was obliged to bring forth
her Son in a stable. She was also ready at the
notice of St. Joseph, to set out immediately on
that very night upon the longer and more
difficult journey into Egypt. And Silveira asks
why the command to fly into Egypt, was given
to St. Joseph and not to the blessed Virgin, who
was to suffer the most from the journey ? And
he answers: Lest the Virgin should be deprived
of an opportunity for performing an act of
obedience for which she was most ready. J But
above all, she showed her heroic obedience,
when, in order to obey the divine will, she offer
ed her Son to death with so much firmness that,
as St. Ildephonsus says, she would have been
ready to crucify him, if executioners had been

wanting.* Hence the venerable Bcde, comment
ing on those words of the Redeemer to that
woman in the Gospel who exclaimed: "Blessed
is the womb that bore thee:" "Yea, rather,
blessed are they who hear the Word of God
and keep it," \ says, that Mary was more happy
through obedience to the divine will, than in
being the mother of God himself.J

For this reason it is, that those who love
obedience are very pleasing to the Virgin. She
appeared once to a religious, a Franciscan,
named Accorso, in his cell, who being called by
obedience to go and hear the confession of a
Bick person, went out, but when he returned he
found Mary waiting for him, and she greatly
praised his obedience. As, on the other hand,
she greatly blamed another religious, who, when
the bell had summoned him to the refectory, de
layed in order to finish certain devotions. The
Virgin, speaking to St. Bridget of the security
found in obeying a spiritual father, said:
Obedience has brought all the saints to glory:
"Obedientia omnes introducit ad gloriam." ||
St. Philip Neri also says, that God requires no
account of things done in obedience, having him-

self declared: u He that heareth you, heareth me;
and he that despiseth you, despiseth me."*
The mother of God herself revealed to St.
Bridget, that through the merit of her obedience
she had obtained from the Lord that all penitent
ginners who have recourse to her, should be
pardon ed.f Ah, our queen and mother, pray
Jesus for us, obtain for us through the merit of
thy obedience that we may be faithful in obey
ing his will, and the commands of our spiritual
fathers. Amen.

SECTION IX.

OF THE PATIENCE OF MARY.

SINCE this earth is a place of merit, it is just
ly called a valley of tears; for we are all placed
here to suffer, and by patience to obtain for our
souls eternal life: "In your patience you shall
possess your souls," J said our Lord. God gave
us the Virgin Mary as an example of all virtues,
but especially as an example of patience. St.
Francis of Sales, among other things, remarks,
that at the nuptials of Cana Jesus Christ gave
an answer to the most holy Virgin, by which he
seemed to pay but little regard to her prayers:
Woman, what is that to thee and to me ? Quid

mihi et t.ibi est, mulier ? " precisely for thii
reason, that he might give us an example of the
patience of his holy mother. But why seek fur
ther? The whole life of Mary was a continual
exercise of patience, for, as an angel revealed to
St. Bridget, the blessed Virgin lived always in
the midst of sufferings.* Her compassion alone
for the sufferings of the Redeemer was enough
to make her a martyr of patience; wherefore St.
Bonaventure says : The crucified conceived the
crucified: "Crucifixa crucifixum concepit."
When we spoke of her dolors, we considered all
she suffered, as well in her journey and life in
Egypt, as during the whole time she lived with
her Son in the workshop of Nazareth. But the
presence of Mary on Calvary, with her dying
Jesus, is alone enough to show us how constant
and sublime was her patience: There stood by
the cross of Jesus, his mother: "Stabat juxta
crucem Jesu mater ejus." Then, by the merit
of this her patience, as blessed Albertus Magnus
remarks, she became our mother, and brought us
forth to the life of grace. f

If we desire then to be the children of Mary,
we must seek to imitate her patience. And
what, says St. Cyprian, can enrich us more with
merit in this life, and glory in the other, than
bearing sufferings with patience?J God said by
the mouth of the prophet Osee: T will hedge up

thy way with thorns: "Sepiam viam tuam
pinis."* St. Gregory remarks on this passage,
that the ways of the elect are hedged with
thorns: "Electorum vise spinis sepiuntur." For
as a hedge of thorns protects the vine, so God
encompasses his servants with tribulation, in
order thai they may not become attached to the
earth; therefore St. Cyprian concludes, patience
delivers us from sin and from hell: "Patientia
nos servat. " And it is patience that makes the
saints: "Patience hath a perfect work,"f bear
ing in peace the crosses that come to us directly
from God, as sickness, poverty, &c., as well as
those that come to us from men, such as per
secutions, injuries, <fcc. St. John saw all the
saints with palms, the emblem of martyrdom, in
their hands. "After this I saw a great multi
tude .... and palms were in their hands;"J
signifying by this that all men must be martyrs
by the sword, or by patience. Be then joyful,
exclaims St. Gregory: We can be martyrs with
out blood, if we preserve patience. If we suffer
the afflictions of this life, as St. Bernard says,
patiently and joyfully: "Patienter, et gau-
denter," oh, how much every pain endured for
God will obtain for us in heaven ! Hence the
apostle encourages us in these words: "Our tribu
lation, which is momentary and light, worketh for

* 2, 6. t Jac. i. 4.

$ Post hsec vidi turbam magnam et palmae in manibw*

eorum. Apoc. vii. 8.

Noe sine ferro martyres ess possumus, si patientiam en
todUunns.

GLORIES OF MARY. 639

as ... an eternal weight of glory."* Beautiful
are the instructions of St. Theresa on this sub
ject: "He who embraces the cross," she says,
"does not feel it." And again : "When a person
resolves to suffer, the pain is over." And if we
feel our crosses heavy, let us have recourse to
Mary, who is called by the Church: the comforter
of the afflicted: "Consolatrix afflictorum;" and
by St. John Damascene: The remedy for all sor
rows of the heart: "Omnium dolorum cordium
medicamentum." Ah, my most sweet Lady,
thou, though innocent, didst suffer with so much
patience, and shall I, who am deserving of hell,
refuse to suffer? My mother, to-day I ask of thee
the grace not to be exempt from crosses, but to
support them with patience. For the love of
Jesus I pray thee to obtain for me nothing less
than this grace from God; through you I hope
for it.

SECTION X.

OP THE PRAYER. OP MARY.

No soul on this earth has ever followed so
perfectly as the blessed Virgin that great les
son of our Saviour: We ought always to pray,
and not to faint: "Oportet semper orare, et non
deficere."f From no other, says St. Bonaven-
ture, can we better take example, and learn the

necessity of persevering in prayer, than from
Mary. Mary gave an example, that we ought
to follow and not faint.* For the blessed Al-
bertus Magnus asserts, that after Jesus Christ,
the divine mother- was the most perfect in the
virtue of prayer, of all who ever have lived or
ever will live: " Virtus orationis in B. Virgine
excellentissima fuit."f First, because her pray
er was continual and persevering. From the
first moment in which she had life, and with life
the perfect use of reason, as we have said above
in the Discourse on her Nativity, she began to
pray. And, moreover, that she might devote
herself more to prayer, she wished, when a child
of only three years, to shut herself up in the re
tirement of the temple; where, as she herself re
vealed to St. Elizabeth (virgin), among the
other hours that she allotted to prayer, she was
accustomed to rise at midnight and go to pray
before the altar of the temple.J And, in order
to meditate on the sufferings of Jesus, accord
ing to Odilone, she also frequently visited the
places of our Lord s nativity, passion, andbur-
ial. Moreover, her prayer, as St. Denis the
Carthusian has written, was wholly recollected,

Therefore the blessed Virgin, through her
love of prayer, had so great a love of solitude,

that, as she said to St. Bridget, when she lived
in the temple she even abstained from intercourse
with her holy parents. St. Jerome, med
itating on the words of Isaias "Behold a Vir
gin shall conceive arid bear a Son, and his name
shall be called Emmanuel"! says, that in He*
brew the word virgin properly signifies a retired
virgin; so that Mary s love of solitude was al
ready predicted by the prophet. Richard says
that the angel addressed her in the words, The
Lord is with thee: "Dominustecum," on account
of her great love of solitude.]; And St. Vincent
Ferrer asserts that the divine mother never went
from home, except to go to the temple, and then
she went entirely recollected, having her eyes al
ways cast down. When going to visit St.
Elizabeth, She went with haste: "Abiit cum
festinatione;" and from this St. Ambrose says
virgins should learn to shun the public eye. St.
Bernard teaches that Mary, through her love of
prayer and solitude, was always careful to avoid

conversation with men.* Hence she is called
by the Holy Spirit the turtle-dove: Thy cheeks
are beautiful as the turtle-dove s: "Pulchraa sunt
genaB tuse sicut turturis."f Which words Ver-
gellus thus explains: The turile-dove is a lover
of solitude, and is an emblem of the unitive
power of the soul.J So the Virgin always lived
solitary in this world, as in a desert, and there
fore it was said of her: Who is this that goeth
up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke? "Quse
est ista quae ascendit per desertum, sicut virgula
fumi?" On which words Rupert the Abbot
says: Thus thou didst ascend by the desert,
having a solitary soul: <f Talis ascendisti per de
sertum animam habens solitariam."

Philo said that God speaks to souls only in
solitude: " Dei sermo amat deserta. " And God
himself declared this by the prophet Osee, when
lie said: I will lead her into the wilderness, and
I will speak to her heart: " Ducam earn in solitu-
dinem, et loquar ad cor ejus."|| And hence St.
Jerome exclaims: Oh solitude, in which God
familiarly converses with his servants IT Yes,
iays St. Bernard, because the quiet and the si
lence that is enjoyed in solitude, force the soul to

leave the earth in thought, and to meditate on
the things of heaven.* Oh, most holy Virgin,
obtain for us a love of prayer and solitude, that
detaching ourselves from the love of creatures,
we may aspire only aflerGod and heaven, wnere
we hope one day to see thee, to praise and love
thee with thy Son, Jesus, forever and ever.
Amc-n. "Come over to me, all ye that desire me,
and be filled with my fruits."f The fruits of
Mary are her virtues.

None has appeared like unto thee, in all time
before or after thee.J

Thou alone, oh woman without equal, hast
been pleasing to Christ.

VARIOUS PRACTICES OF DEVOTION
TO THE DIVINE MOTHER.

THE queen of heaven is so liberal, as St. An
drew of Crete says, that she makes a large return
for the smallest devotions of her servants.
But two conditions are necessary for this: First,
that we offer her the homage of a soul pure from
sin; for otherwise Mary will say to us what she
said to a soldier, a man of vicious habits, w